Journal Article

FZJ-2026-04995

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Longitudinal brain-age predictions comprising long-duration spaceflight missions

Tang, G. (Corresponding author) ; Patil, K. R.FZJ* ; Hoffstaedter, F.FZJ* ; More, S. ; Eickhoff, S. B.FZJ* ; Jillings, S. ; Jeurissen, B. ; Tomilovskaya, E. ; Gerlach, D. ; Nosikova, I. ; Riabova, A. ; Pechenkova, E. ; Petrovichev, V. ; Rukavishnikov, I. ; Makovskaya, L. ; Ombergen, A. V. ; Wuyts, F. L. ; Eulenburg, P. z.

2026
Nature Publ. Group [New York, NY]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1038/s41526-026-00575-3  doi:10.34734/FZJ-2026-04995

Abstract: Our study investigates the effects of long-duration spaceflight on brain aging in spacefarers using structural MRI and machine learning models. Pre-, post-, and follow-up scans of ROS cosmonauts ESA astronauts, and matched Earth-bounding controls were analyzed. We found a considerable difference between the spacefareres and the control group, especially in the ESA cohorts (ß = 0.63). In the ROS cohorts, we observed a difference between the pre- and post-flight scans. A post-hoc analysis revealed that the pre-flight brain age delta was 0.842 years less than the immediate post-flight brain age delta after long-duration spaceflight. All three machine learning models showed good to excellent intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) between the two consecutive MRI sessions. Our findings suggest that long-duration spaceflight may have an effect on human brain aging as observed from MRI.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Gehirn & Verhalten (INM-7)

Research Program(s):

1. 5252 - Brain Dysfunction and Plasticity (POF4-525) (POF4-525)

Appears in the scientific report 2026

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