Title:  Monitoring And Correcting Autonomic Responses During Long-Duration Spaceflight With Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE) : A NASA Technology Transfer Opportunity
Authors:  P.S. Cowings and W.B. Toscano
Reference:  Clinical Autonomic Research, 6:305, 1996. Presented at the Seventh International Symposium of the Autonomic Nervous System, American Autonomic Association, Montreal , Canada, 1996

In a cooperative venture with Russia, NASA scientists will be providing pre-flight autonomic training to cosmonauts in Star City for an upcoming MIR space station mission as a potential treatment for space motion sickness and post-flight orthostatic intolerance. Four cosmonauts will be trained using the unique autogenic feedback training exercise (AFTE) methods, developed at NASA/Ames Research Center by Dr. Patricia Cowings and Dr. William Toscano. Of the four cosmonauts trained, two will be participating in the 6-month MIR mission designed to: 'monitor and correct autonomic responses during the long-duration spaceflight'. AFTE was used successfully by the American astronauts in suppressing the symptoms of space motion sickness on three shuttle missions, and has been demonstrated to relieve symptoms of motion sickness and nausea in a variety of Earth-based situations. This report will outline the results of the pre- flight training and will describe all procedures proposed for the mission itself. As part of efforts to transfer NASA technology to the commercial sector, NASA will offer information on licensing to interested practitioners in the same methods, hardware and software used to support the MIR mission. This technology consists of three parts: (1) AFTE is a 6-h training program which effectively enables people to control voluntarily several of their physiological responses to stressors; (2) a Pentium-based PC software used for clinical monitoring and training of physiological symptoms, which is user-interactive and directly displays immediate changes in physiological responses. Cardiovascular dynamics measured include cardiac output, blood pressure, vagal tone, and total peripheral resistance, and these in turn can be voluntarily controlled with training; and (3) an ambulatory system, worn by cosmonauts on their MIR mission, which measures electrocardiography, respiration, skin conductance and temperature, which will be used to evaluate individual differences in response to microgravity.