During the long way to Mars: effects of 520 days of confinement (Mars500) on the assessment of affective stimuli and stage alteration in mood and plasma hormone levels

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 2;9(4):e87087. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087087. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

For future interplanetary manned spaceflight, mental issues, as well as physiological problems, must inevitably be considered and solved. Mars500 is a high-fidelity ground simulation experiment that involved 520 days of confined isolation for six multinational crewmembers. This experiment provided a good opportunity to perform psycho-physiological and psycho-social researches on such missions. To investigate emotional responses and psychological adaptation over long-term confinement, the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS) was selected as the visual emotional stimuli in this study. Additional data collected and analyzed included the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire and the levels of four types of plasma hormones: cortisol, 5-hydroxy tryptamine, dopamine, and norepinephrine. The results demonstrated an obvious bias on valence rating for unpleasant stimuli with time (p<0.05), and the correlation between psychological and biochemical data was identified (p<0.05). Overall, we concluded that the confined crew tended to assign positive ratings to negative pictures with time, which might be driven by a defensive system. There was a stage-changing pattern of psychological adaptation of the Mars500 crew, which is similar to the third-quarter phenomenon.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological / physiology*
  • Adult
  • Affect*
  • Hormones / blood*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mars
  • Space Flight*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Hormones

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science & Technology (973 Program, 2011CB711001), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (91132704, 30930031).The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.