HHP doctoral student Hannah Gustafson has won NASA Human Research Program's Grant Augmentation Award. The award given to students and postdocs provides $25,000 support for 1 year for two of Hannah's projects titled: Identifying Key Postural Control Outcomes and An Analysis of Astronaut Characteristics Impacting Balance Following Spaceflight.

Hannah Gustafson

Identifying Key Postural Control Outcomes

The first study will focus on the identification of optimal postural control outcome measures provided by Computerized Dynamic Posturography. A comparison of root mean square, COP, minimum time to contact, path length, maximum path velocity, mean path velocity, peak to peak sway, and distance to boundary will be conducted using ROC curves. This study delves into the sensitivity of these measures across short-duration mission astronauts, particularly during the initial recovery phase following astronauts return to Earth.

An Analysis of Astronaut Characteristics Impacting Balance Following Spaceflight.

This study will broaden the scope by examining multifaceted factors influencing post-flight performance, including sex differences, age, height, BMI, foot size, baseline scores, flight role (Commander/Pilot, Mission Specialist), and the impact of flight duration. This comprehensive exploration contributes to our understanding of the intricacies of postural control in astronauts and will help in predicting which astronauts will have more balance decrements than others.