Spatial Orientation and Motor Skills: How to Flip Switches Down in Weightlessness?

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of the study is to investigate spatial orientation in weightlessness as it manifests not in perception but rather in motor performance by direction and reaction time of flip switch. Hypotheses are that flip switch: will be biased towards visual allocentric cues when those are available; will be biased towards the egocentric reference when tactile cues are added; will be dominated by egocentric cues when visual cues are not available; will be delayed and more variable when confirmatory gravitational cues are absent; will be faster and more reliable in absence of conflicting gravitational cues, and even more so when tactile cues are added; The difference will be more pronounce when tested under Dual-task condition

Official Title
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Spatial Orientation and Motor Skills: How to Flip Switches Down in Weightlessness?

Conditions
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Healthy Volunteers

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: FLIP SWITCHES DOWN IN WEIGHTLESSNESS


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Healthy volunteers (men or women) Aged from 20 to 65 Affiliated to a Social Security system and, for non-French resident, holding a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) Who accepted to take part in the study Who have given their written stated consent Who has passed a medical examination similar to a standard aviation medical examination for private pilot aptitude (JAR FCL3 Class 2 medical examination). There will be no additional test performed for subject selection. Subjects will be staff member of the team or of other teams participating in the parabolic flight campaign Exclusion Criteria: Person who took part in a previous biomedical research protocol, of which exclusion period is not terminated Person who has already participated in a parabolic flight Pregnant women

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 20 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: spatial orientation in weightlessness<br>subjects will be asked to flip a series of switches into the off position. On Earth, the off position corresponds to down in all three reference frames: the visual allocentric, the non-visual allocentric as well as the egocentric frames. We expect that flip direction will be dominated by visual allocentric cues when those are available, will be delayed and more variable when confirmatory gravitational cues are absent, and will be biased towards the egocentric reference when tactile cues are added | Other: FLIP SWITCHES DOWN IN WEIGHTLESSNESS<br>* The circular instrument panel that subjects will see into the cylindrical mask consists of one switch surrounded by a luminous ring (left part of the figure below). The switch can be flipped into any direction within the full 360° range. The switch provides no visual cues about down, but the experimenter can add such cues by means of visually polarized labelling displayed on a circular black screen at the center of the panel (right part the figure below).<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| reaction time of flip switch measured with a chronometer |  | baseline | 
| Direction of flip switch measured with the circular instrument panel |  | baseline |