01. Would our vestibular and proprioceptive senses be affected by the weightlessness of space? How would we compensate for changes? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

Of the seven sensory systems, most of us are familiar with the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. The two less well known senses are the vestibular sense (sense of position and movement derived from the relationship of your head – specifically the vestibules of the inner ear – to the pull of Earth's gravity) and proprioceptive (the internal sense of body – of your muscles and joints in relation to each other). In weightlessness, space travelers will be much less able to rely on the vestibular sense which depends on gravity. Space travelers can compensate by increasing and exaggerating proprioceptive activities. This can be done by increasing activities that use muscles and joints such as pulling on a stretchy band tied in a circle, pulling and pushing against objects which don't move and doing stretching exercises.

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Answer provided by Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D. OTR

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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