How to measure human adaptation in extreme environments: the case of Antarctic wintering-over

Whether wintering-over causes cognitive and sensory impairment and associated adaptation problems is still a subject of debate. Conflicting results reported in the literature may be due to the difference in the experimental tasks. Moreover, interpersonal variability can hide the effects.

Performance on cognitive and psychomotor tasks can be an indicator of adaptation problems.

Subjects were 10 scientists and 6 technicians (both clinically normal) who wintered-over for a year in the Antarctic. A subset of tasks of the AGARD battery of Standardized Tests for Research with Environmental Stressors (SB) was completed eight times during the isolation. To assess adaptation, the adaptability questionnaire (AQ) was completed by the physician before every performance test.

SB showed a sensitive period of adaptation at mid-winter and at the end of the isolation, but the performance in the different tasks did not deteriorate exactly at the same time. No systematic relationship between AQ notations and SB performances was noted. However, three subjects showed significant positive correlations: r > 0.8, p < 0.05 (i.e., low adaptation = low performance).

Some clinically normal individuals can experience adaptation problems, and SB tasks can be an indicator of these problems when comparisons are done at an individual level.