Coping with Antartica demands: Psychological and chronobiological variatins in constant darkness, isolation and confinement

TORTELLO CAMILA; BARBARITO MARTA; FOLGUEIRA AGUSTÍN; CRIPPA VALERIA ; CUIULI JUAN MANUEL; MICHEL NICOLAS; GOLOMBEK DIEGO ANDRÉS.; VIGO DANIEL; PLANO SANTIAGO ANDRÉS

San Petersburgo

Congreso; XXVI Multidisciplinary International Neuroscience and Biological Psychiatry Conference "Stress and Bihabiour"; 2019

The International Stress and Behavior Society

Introduction: Prolonged residence in Antarctica requires psychophysiological adaptation to extreme conditions. It configures an opportunity to explore confinement and isolation impairment on human psychology and circadian rhythms plasticity associated to Antarctica´s particular photoperiod.Methods: To study intra and interpersonal development induced by environmental stress, fourteen subjects were assessed with a battery of questionnaires every other month along one year at Belgrano II Argentine Antarctica station. To find out their stress-states, recovery resources and coping strategies, they completed the Stress-Recovery questionnaire and the COPE Scale. The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and the Group Environment Scale (GES) were evaluated to analyze social and psychological characteristics of work environment. Actigraphy and sleep diary were used to assess chronobiology variables, focusing on sleep onset, sleep quality and chronotypes variations during the polar night. ANOVA analyses were conducted to study the impact of seasonal variations and Pearson correlation test to examine correlations between psychological variables.Results & Discussion: Results showed a significant decreased in Peer and Hierarchical Support along the year (p=0.02, p=0.03). Psychological Job Demands also varied significantly throughout the year (p=0.0002), evidencing greater values before and at the end of the expedition. Correlations exhibit a positive relation between Stress-Recovery Index and Cohesiveness (p=0.003), Implementation and Preparedness (p=0.005), Decision Latitude (p=0.006), Peer Support (p=0.003) and Hierarchical Support (p=0.0002). A negative correlation was observed between Stress-Recovery Index and Counterproductive Activity (p=0.001). Social variables appear to decline as confinement day?s progress. Stress management seems to be decisive for personal as well as social development in this extreme context. Antarctica can shed light on human interactions that arise in adverse environmental conditions. This knowledge can be applicable to different contexts such as space missions.Research support: This research was supported by the Ministry of Defense grant PIDEFF 2014-2017 n°06 and the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica (ANPCyT) grant PICTO 2017-0068.