With interest in Mars exploration slowly peaking, researchers are trying to figure out the effects of an extended amount of space travel time on human beings to successfully achieve the daunting task of a human colony on Mars. This is partly why NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is spending a year aboard the International Space Station. Now, new research is showing some interesting findings about the effects of space radiation on adult mice.

Adult mice, when exposed to space radiation, become better at performing a challenging task called “pattern separation,” which requires them to differentiate between two environments of different types, Science Alert reports. The results gain more significance as the older mice were recorded as performing better, while the younger mice performed worse. In other words, younger mice-- equivalents of teenagers in humans, performed worse at task completion after being exposed to high-energy deep space particles.

Researchers at the Southwestern Medical Centre of the University of Texas are still trying to ascertain the differences in result. Although the results are forthcoming, it is important to not reach premature conclusions since previous research has also shown the negative effects of radiation on the brain. One possibility being examined is that the mice improve at this particular task, while their performance worsens in others.

“The improvement may have come from their brains' new reliance on another system that supports these kinds of tasks,” Amelia Eisch, psychiatry professor at the Southwestern Medical Center and lead author on the study said, reports Gizmodo. “Or perhaps it could be an altered pattern of neurons or mossy cells.”

They study observed the region of the brain responsible for regulating emotion, long-term memory and spatial navigation – the hippocampus. This region will prove particularly crucial for astronauts aboard NASA’s Mars mission in 2030. Artificial protection against high-speed subatomic particles would be essential for a human colony on Mars.

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