[Brain × Spaceflight Epi] Looking for co-authors: Brief neurobehavioral & sleep surveillance project

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Hi everyone! :waving_hand:

For those I haven’t had the chance to meet yet, I’m Melody Gramajo. I’m based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I’m a member of both the Brain AWG and the Spaceflight Epidemiology AWG.

Outside the AWGs, I work on a community brain health project focused on remote areas of southern Argentina (Patagonia). Looking at the everyday realities of isolated regions -long travel distances, extreme seasonal darkness in winter, and very scarce access to neurological care- I couldn’t help but see a clear parallel with exploration spaceflight. Both face small groups dealing with confinement, circadian disruption, and cognitive fatigue far away from any clinic.

That sparked a question I’d love to tackle together: How can we track cognitive resilience, alertness, and sleep stability in isolated settings using brief, accessible tools (under 5 minutes) that don’t burden crews or participants?

Following encouraging discussions with leadership in both groups, I am proposing a cross-AWG collaborative project between Brain AWG and Spaceflight Epi, structured around a PRISMA-ScR Scoping Review. Together, our goal will be to map brief digital cognitive tools (like the 3-minute PVT-B and short components of the NASA Cognition battery) alongside passive sleep and circadian metrics (actigraphy, sleep regularity) tested in isolated, confined, and extreme environments. To keep things grounded and feasible, we will benchmark against published effect sizes and practice curves from analog and spaceflight literature (HERA, Mars-520, ISS, and Antarctic stations) to propose an operational “Minimal Dataset”. We’ll also examine real-world transferability, looking at how tools validated in tech-fluent astronaut cohorts translate to settings with hardware, language, or digital literacy limits.

I am actively looking for co-authors to build this paper together! I will be taking on the day-to-day coordination, the Rayyan setup, and the core manuscript drafting, so there are concrete, meaningful co-authorship roles available whether you are interested in protocol design, screening and extraction in Rayyan, or advising on sleep and neurobehavioral endpoints. Students, early-career researchers, and experienced members are all very welcome.

If you’d like to join us as a co-author, please reply directly to this thread or drop your details in this quick Sign-up Form so we can schedule our kickoff call.

Looking forward to working together!

Warmly,
Melody Celeste Gramajo

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Hi Melody! I’ve filled out the interest form and I’m very interested in contributing to this project

My background is in AI/ML, scientific research, bioinformatics, and data analysis, and I’ve worked with NASA OSDR data as well as research workflows involving biological datasets and structured annotation

I’d be really excited to contribute wherever I can, especially with literature screening, data extraction, research, and manuscript work, while also learning more about the neurobehavioral and sleep aspects of the project. Looking forward to collaborating with everyone! :slight_smile:

Email: hitaeshi25sehgal@gmail.com

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Hi @Melody.gram this is a really interesting project and I’d love to contribute. I’m currently involved in space medicine research and have completed a 7 days lunar analog mission as an analog astronaut, where i was crew commander. I’m also planning to participating in more analogs in future.

Given my experience with the analog environments and my background in physical therapy. I’d be very interested in contributing to the project, particularly around the analog mission perspective, human performance, sensorimotor/cognitive aspects and translating the findings to future exploration settings.

If you’re still looking for co-authors, I’d be very happy to discuss how I contribute to the project

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Hi @lilmisscupcake and @skyrudrapratap!

Thank you both so much for reaching out and for already taking the time to fill out the sign-up form! It’s really wonderful to see this momentum so quickly.

@lilmisscupcake - Your background in AI/ML, bioinformatics, and data annotation workflows in OSDR is a fantastic fit for this review. Having your experience will be a huge help when we set up our search strategies, screening pipelines, and structured extraction in Rayyan.

@skyrudrapratap - Welcome! Having your firsthand perspective as an analog crew commander alongside your background in space medicine and physical therapy will bring such valuable operational depth to the paper, especially as we discuss sensorimotor feasibility and translation to exploration missions.

Regarding co-authorship: absolutely! This is designed from the ground up as a collaborative, multi-author effort. Anyone who actively contributes to the project - whether through literature screening and data extraction in Rayyan, refining the protocol, or contributing to the writing and critical review of the manuscript (following standard ICMJE guidelines) - will have a well-defined co-authorship role. During our kickoff call, we will map out specific tasks and areas of focus so everyone has a clear, meaningful, and rewarding path to contribute.

I’ll keep this call open over the next few days to allow colleagues across other time zones to see the post, and then I’ll reach out to everyone via email with a calendar poll to schedule our kickoff call.

Looking forward to working together! :rocket: :blush:

Warmly,
Melody

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