Data collected from the brain scans of 30 astronauts revealed that missions of six months or longer caused significant ventricle expansion in the brain. Ventricles are cavities in the brain filled with cerebrospinal fluid, which provides protection, nourishment, and waste removal to the brain.
“We found that the more time people spent in space, the larger their ventricles became,” said Rachael Seidler, a researcher in physiology and kinesiology at the University of Florida. “Many astronauts travel to space more than one time, and our study shows it takes about three years between flights for the ventricles to fully recover.”
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