Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G G Shlyk.
Before flight, the flight pool monkeys were trained to experience spaceflight-type effects (diminished motor activity and confinement) and to perform eye-head-hand coordination and foot-pedal tasks. A battery of tests was used to select strong and highly adaptable animals as flight candidates. The animals with strong active defensive and exploratory reactions proved to be the best.
Study of behavior and performance patterns of two Bion 11 monkeys showed that they adapted to the space environment at a different rate. Inflight, both animals successfully performed eye-head-hand coordination tasks (Program 1) and failed to complete foot pedal tasks (Program 2), although they were successful in performing Program 2 before and immediately after flight.
A total of 25 young monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained with the Psychomotor Test System, a package of software tasks and computer hardware developed for spaceflight research with nonhuman primates. Two flight monkeys and two control monkeys were selected from this pool and performed a psychomotor task before and after the Bion 11 flight or a ground-control period. Monkeys from both groups showed significant disruption in performance after the 14-day flight or simulation (plus one anesthetized day of biopsies and other tests), and this disruption appeared to be magnified for the flight animal.
The success of two monkeys in performing an eye-head-hand coordination task was investigated during the Bion 11 flight. In comparison to the ground controls, it took the flight monkeys more time to reach the light stimuli located at 40 degrees to the left or right from the center of the panel in front of them. During flight days (FD) 5-6, the precision of hand movements deteriorated, and during FD 7-14, it improved, although the performance time increased.
It was found out in experiments on monkeys that one of the most serious remote consequences of small and medium doses of ionizing radiation was the development of stable organic disorders in various cerebral structures. Clinical researches substantiate the necessity to make registration of post-radiation pathological changes in central nerve system of patients.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Main time characteristics of sleep were studied in 9 adult dogs in experiments with 24-hr polygraphic recordings. The all-day sleep quantity (35%), circadian distribution of sleep with the maximum between 24 and 9 hours, more rapid rise of delta-sleep (DS) in the second half of day and of REM sleep in the first hours of night -- all these data suggest that the dog sleep schedule is under considerable influence of ecological factors related to time organization of activity and sleep in humans. A relatively high amount of drowsiness in dog's sleep (nearly 25%) is comparable with DS representation. REM occupies about 20% of total sleep time. Mean REM cycle lasts 30 min. The data obtained can be used as the standards of dog sleep in neurophysiological, pharmacological and behavioral studies.
Phenomenology and structure of the dog sleep were studied in chronic experiments. Three stages of NREM and REM phases were revealed. Sleeep in the dog was shown to differ from sleep in the rat, rabbit, and cat by appearance of alpha-like regular rhythm 8--9/sec during the onset of drowsiness, and by the sigma-rhythm first appearing against the background of clear slow waves. The exact estimation of REM sleep was shown to need a combined consideration of the EEG data with one of the two other signs (EMG or EOG).
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In relation to Cosmos experiments behavioural responses of rhesus monkeys were investigated and compared with their conditioned reflex activities. The animals with a distinct search-oriented behaviour showed a higher rate of recovery of instrumented reflexes, better stability of conditioned-reflex activities to stress-effects and a faster adaptation to them. Extreme effects associated with changes in the experimental environment and rigid fixation inhibited conditioned-reflex activities to a greater extent than strong but short-term exposures followed by tests in a normal environment. It was also demonstrated that variations of the sleep structure in stress situations were largely dependent on typological features of animals.
The data on the sleep structure of two rhesus monkeys, Vernyi and Gordyi, during their 7-day space flight on Cosmos-1667 and a control study staged a month after recovery are discussed. Sleep structure was changed to the greatest extent the night before launch when additional stress factors were involved. During the first night in space Vernyi showed the so-called recoil effect. Later his sleep structure became stabilized: the specific weight of fast sleep diminished and the fast sleep/delta/sleep index in the first two cycles decreased. In the ground-based control study, sleep parameters pointed to a deteriorated health status of the animal: his fast sleep patterns changed and delta-sleep often reached its maximum after a fast sleep episode. In this animal adaptation was associated with fast sleep restructuring. In the second primate, Gordyi, the process of adaptation was extended and took three nights. This animal consistently showed low parameters of delta-sleep during both fright and postflight control study; it exhibited no recoil phenomenon after its reduction in the prelaunch night. The structure of sleep indicated that it played a lesser role in the overall process of adaptation.
Continuous round-the-clock polygraphic monitoring of sleep and wakefulness was done once a week from four dogs which for a month were kept under isolated and confined conditions. Significant differences were found in the dynamics of representation of various sleep stages that depended on the typological characteristics of the higher nervous activity and related patterns of adaptation to stress-effects. The findings show that sleep studies are promising for the selection of flight animals and for objective evaluation of their adaptive capacity.