An EEG (or electroencephalogram) is one of the first tests that we go through after experiencing a seizure. Small sensors (or electrodes) are attached to our scalp to measure electrical current in different portions of our brains. Hopefully, the data attained can be used by our medical team to determine where in the brain a seizure originates. An initial EEG might be minutes to an hour-long. If no epileptic activity is found, there are additional “ambulatory” tests that allow us as outpatients to go on with our life while our brainwaves are captured for later analysis. Months ago, we ran a poll and the EEG was deemed by our Twitter community as the most annoying test that we as patients endure. If it is so frustrating to walk around your home while wearing tons of wires dangling from your head, can you imagine how annoying it would have been to perform a two-week-long EEG in a tiny capsule, miles above the earth?
Most of us wouldn’t think to associate an EEG and space, but during the race to land on the moon anything went for NASA. They had many questions regarding what would happen to the human brain under zero G for the length of time it would take to travel to, land on, explore, and return from the moon.
As you can imagine, the whole astronaut core was resistant to the idea of allowing the medical staff at NASA to snoop on their thoughts during an active mission. After several long discussions, NASA relented. Though the EEG data would be harvested continuously, NASA rebranded the M008 Experiment as an “In-flight sleep analysis“. The experiment’s primary goal was “to obtain objective and precise information concerning the number, duration, and depth of sleep periods in flight” However, a secondary objective was to determine if a long-stay in orbit would somehow change the electrical activity in an astronaut’s brain.
Those of us who have performed longer EEGs know there is a good chance that during the test an electrode or two can detach from the scalp. During a nine-day-long video EEG I performed at an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, techs reattached dangling electrodes three different times to ensure that all the data was captured correctly. Unfortunately, there are no EEG techs in earth’s orbit. For fear that the electrodes would fall-off during the mission, the electrodes were to be surgically implanted below the surface of the astronaut’s scalp.
and Frank F. Borman, Jr (right)
But who would possibly agree to an EEG in space? NASA tapped two future space heroes for the experiment: Frank F. Borman, Jr. and James “Jim” A. Lovell, Jr. The pair would later become bonafide American Heroes as they (along with William “Bill” Anders) gave their Genesis message during the Apollo 8 mission on Christmas Eve 1968.
Lovell would attain even-further superstardom after commanding Apollo 13; a mission that was later adapted by Ron Howard into a movie with the same name. Tom Hanks played Lovell as the film depicted the crew’s harrowing brush with death during the mission’s “successful failure”.
While each astronaut would eventually become a legend, NASA scheduled Gemini VII as the first spaceflight for each. Designated as a long-stay in earth’s orbit, both astronauts lived, ate, slept, and other things for fourteen days in a capsule that Lovell later described as “no bigger than the front seats of a Volkswagon bug”.
On December 4, 1965, the Gemini VII space mission launched with EEG sensors implanted under the flight’s commander’s scalp. Frank F. Borman, Jr.’s brainwaves were tracked for two weeks by communication relays around the world.
After hearing the story of experiment M008, I often thought of Gemini VII while performing each one of my own EEGs. Although the test was still annoying, I was happy to have the EEG performed in a hospital and not in the front seat of a Volkswagon bug. Rather than uttering complaints about how frustrating it was to wash out the glue the techs use to attach the electrodes to my scalp, I thought “Hey, at least the sensors are above my skin!”
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