The New Scientist is reporting that a device, which uses near-infrared optical spectroscopy to monitor blood flow in the head, has been successfully tested on the zero gravity simulator plane known as the “vomit comet.” The device, which watches the reflected near-infrared light coming from inside the head, had to be tested in a weightless environment to make sure it can be used up in space where fMRI machines are not yet present.
The New Scientist explains:
The flight showed the device works outside controlled lab settings, and crucially, that it works in weightlessness.
That’s important, because without gravity to pull it down and out of the brain, blood tends to pool inside the brain. That could potentially confound any technique that relies on measuring minute changes in blood flow. “We may no longer be able to see what we see with gravity on Earth pulling all that blood out of our head,” Strangman told New Scientist.
The ‘vomit comet’ flight revealed that the device can be calibrated to measure blood flow in zero gravity, confirming previous tests in Strangman’s Boston laboratory that simulated microgravity conditions by laying volunteers on a table that tilts downwards by a few degrees.