Elisa Raffaella Ferrè: What happens to the brain in space?

Here on Earth, we take the force of gravity for granted. For years, researchers have neglected to study its influence because of this very reason, but with commercial spaceflight on the horizon, researchers are now racing to discover what living off-Earth might do to our bodies and our brains.

In this week’s episode, we hear from psychologist Dr Elisa Raffaella Ferrè.

She explains how her studies are revealing the impact of gravity on our cognition through her experiments in a zero-g environment aboard the so-called ‘Vomit Comet’– the aircraft used to train astronauts for the weightlessness in space.

• Read the edited interview - This is your brain on space: how gravity influences your mental abilities

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Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

• Dr Erin Macdonald: Is there science in Star Trek?
• Kathryn D. Sullivan: What is it really like to walk in space?
• Dean Burnett: What’s going on in the teenage brain?
• Lisa Feldman Barrett: How emotions are made
• Bill Bryson: What should we know about how our bodies work?
• Richard Wiseman: The mindset behind the Moon landing