Brain.Space in Israel, a four-year startup studying brain activity data, is set to deploy its New Week astronaut testing facility in space during the SpaceX flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
Three astronauts on the planned Axiom Space mission to the ISS will use a special electroencephalogram (EEG) helmet from Brain.Space, the company said on Monday.
The ten-day mission, the first private trip to the space station, will begin on April 3 with four astronauts.
"We really know that the microgravity environment can affect the body's physiological indicators, so it's likely to affect the brain, and we want to keep that in mind," Brain.Space CEO Yair Levy told Reuters. Data is being collected on heart rate, skin resistance, muscle mass and more in space, but not yet on brain activity, he said.
Brain.Space participated in 30 experiments to participate in the so-called Rakia mission on the ISS.
Three of the four astronauts - including Israeli Eytan Stibbe - will wear helmets with 460 airbrushes attached to their scalp and will perform various tasks for 20 minutes a day, uploading data to a laptop in space. station. The tasks include a "visual weirdo", which the company says is effective in identifying abnormal brain dynamics.
Similar studies with these tasks have already been completed on Earth and after the Brain mission. Space will compare EEG data to determine differences in brain activity between Earth and space. It noted that such experiments were necessary because long-term space exploration and "life without Earth" were at stake.
Brain.Space, which also says it received $ 8.5 million in the initial round of funding, pays off as a brain infrastructure company and works with Ben Gurion's Department of Thought and the Israeli University of Brain Science to convert terabytes of data into useful knowledge.
Levy said he hopes the space mission will be a springboard for other institutions, researchers and software developers to use his platform for brain data.
"The universe is an accelerator. The idea is to revolutionize and potentially make the brain activity of applications, products and services as easy as downloading data from Apple Watch," he said. Levy, who cites ADHD measurements as an example.