Neurobiological Effects of Combined Exposure to the Radiation and Gravitational Factors of Interplanetary Missions in Model Experiments: Results and Outlook

The review is devoted to the most critical and yet least studied neurobiological effects of combined exposure to the radiation and gravitational factors in space exploration missions. The authors present the data of own multiyear investigations in this area, including the neurobiological responses of the central nervous system to synchronous combined exposure to ionizing radiation of varying quality modeling some types of galactic cosmic radiation and modeled microgravity in laboratory experiments with rats and primates using an original model. Neurobiological effects were explored in different levels of CNS organization from molecular to integrative (behavior of animals). The investigations point to the consequences of prolonged exposure, typological characteristics of animals, and complicated character of interaction of the factors under study.