Psychologists Study Zero-Gravity Effects on the Human Brain

Researchers from the School of Psychology will find out about the way humans adapt to differences in the control of movement while being weightless on a parabolic flight especially designed to create the 'zero-gravity' experience. 

The aeroplane - a standard Airbus without seating - flies up and down in a rollercoaster-style curve.  At the top of the curve the researchers will be weightless for 20 seconds and at the bottom of the curve they will become twice their normal weight on earth.

The researchers will measure how people use precision grip to hold an object steady in the hand while they produce collisions with the object against a metal frame.  We normally control such collisions predictively, but researchers think that, under zero-gravity conditions, the prediction will be faulty and on-line information from the sense of touch will be important in correcting predictions.

Alan Wing, lead investigator and Professor of Human Movement, says, 'In related research, in the laboratory,  we are studying how brain injured people use the sense of touch to correct impaired movements.   This work helps us better understand the brain's control of complex movement and how this control deteriorates with age and disease, in turn, leading to the development of improved rehabilitation techniques.' 

The project has been funded by the European Fifth Framework and the European Space Agency (ESA) and involves other partners in Tubingen, Munich, Pisa, Zurich, Paris, Brussels and Bangor.