Fig. 1: Roadmap in novel monitoring and researching the pathogenesis of spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) enabled by multi-modal visual assessment technology and machine learning.

Data enabling study of etiology and pathogenesis of SANS is built upon two domains of data: visual function (A, B) and ocular structure (C). Two main research avenues must be established. A, B Novel multi-modal visual assessment with virtual reality technology to quantify parameters of visual function (Λ) changes caused by SANS-specific neuro-ophthalmic structural changes. C Novel techniques to establish shared and complimentary representations (Φ) of both the structure changes and the changes made to the parameters of the visual function due to SANS. D These novel parametric functional representations and the accompanying mappings between the visual function and ocular structure can provide a comprehensive and whole some battery of assessments capable of measuring the impact from each domain (e.g., structural changes) on the other (e.g., visual function symptoms). These techniques should be deployed and tested both terrestrially and under microgravity conditions to ensure their reliability, specificity, and sensitivity for both terrestrial and spaceflight applications. Illustration by Joshua Ong, Nasif Zaman, Sharif Kamran, and Alireza Tavakkoli.