EFFECT OF “DRY” IMMERSION ON THE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF A VISUAL-MOTOR TASK USING A JOYSTICK DEPENDING ON THE DIRECTION OF HAND MOVEMENT

Issues related to controlling arm movements in space flight (SF) are extremely important. The success of an operator’s activities depends on the safety of the SF. To study the impact of the SF factor (support unloading), a ground-based “Dry” Immersion (DI) model is used. The study was conducted for 7 days under DI conditions. During the visual-motor task, 10 participants moved the cursor from the center of the screen to randomly appearing peripheral targets using a joystick. The DI effect on cursor movement parameters in four directions was evaluated. There were differences in time and accuracy depending on the hand movement direction in control studies that persisted during and after DI exposure. In the early days of DI, most estimated cursor movement parameters deteriorated, regardless of the direction. By the end of the immersion, they had recovered. The degree of DI influence on cursor movement differed depending on the direction of hand movement, and was most pronounced at the beginning of DI. There was minimal impact of DI on movement from left to right.