AUTHOR=Striebel Johannes , Kalinski Laura , Sturm Maximilian , Drouvé Nils , Peters Stefan , Lichterfeld Yannick , Habibey Rouhollah , Hauslage Jens , El Sheikh Sherif , Busskamp Volker , Liemersdorf Christian TITLE=Human neural network activity reacts to gravity changes in vitro JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience VOLUME=17 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1085282 DOI=10.3389/fnins.2023.1085282 ISSN=1662-453X ABSTRACT=
During spaceflight, humans experience a variety of physiological changes due to deviations from familiar earth conditions. Specifically, the lack of gravity is responsible for many effects observed in returning astronauts. These impairments can include structural as well as functional changes of the brain and a decline in cognitive performance. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms remain elusive. Alterations in neuronal activity play a central role in mental disorders and altered neuronal transmission may also lead to diminished human performance in space. Thus, understanding the influence of altered gravity at the cellular and network level is of high importance. Previous electrophysiological experiments using patch clamp techniques and calcium indicators have shown that neuronal activity is influenced by altered gravity. By using multi-electrode array (MEA) technology, we advanced the electrophysiological investigation covering single-cell to network level responses during exposure to decreased (micro-) or increased (hyper-) gravity conditions. We continuously recorded in real-time the spontaneous activity of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neural networks