Coping with Antarctic demands: Psychological implications of isolation and confinement.

Working in extreme environments requires a wide range of cognitive, psychological and social competences. Antarctica represents one of the most challenging habitats to work in due to its aridity, extremely cold weather, and isolated conditions. This study aimed to assess mood variations and coping strategies, as well as their possible modulation by group dynamics in a crew at the Belgrano II Argentine Antarctic Station throughout 1 year of confinement. Thirteen members of the Argentine Army completed emotional, coping and social dynamics questionnaires bimonthly in March, May, July, September and November. Results showed a significant decline in social dynamics scales, evidenced by decreases in perceived peer and hierarchical support. Additionally, coping strategies displayed a drop in mature defence throughout the expedition. A positive correlation was found between social support and recovery from stress. Our results highlight the importance of interpersonal relationships in psychological adjustment to isolation and extreme environments.

Subjective time estimation in Antarctica: The impact of extreme environments and isolation on a time production task.

Interval timing measures time estimation in the seconds-to-minutes range. Antarctica provides a real-world context to study the effect of extreme photoperiods and isolation on time perception. The aim of this study was to explore interval timing as a cognitive measure in the crew of Belgrano II Argentine Antarctic Station. A total of 13 subjects were assessed for interval timing in short (3 s), intermediate (6 s) and long (12 s) duration stimuli. Measures were taken during the morning and evening, five times along the year. Significant variations were found for 3 s and 6 s during the morning and 6 s during the evening. Results suggest an impact of isolation on morning performances and an effect of the polar night on evening measures. These findings shed some light on the use of interval timing as a cognitive test to assess performance in extreme environments.

Sleep, napping and alertness during an overwintering mission at Belgrano II Argentine Antarctic station.

During Antarctic isolation personnel are exposed to extreme photoperiods. A frequent observation is a sleep onset phase delay during winter. It is not known if, as a result, daytime sleeping in the form of naps increases. We sought to assess sleep patterns - with focus on daytime sleeping - and alertness in a Latin American crew overwintering in Argentine Antarctic station Belgrano II. Measurements were collected in 13 males during March, May, July, September and November, and included actigraphy and psychomotor vigilance tasks. Sleep duration significantly decreased during winter. A total of eight participants took at least one weekly nap across all measurement points. During winter, the nap onset was delayed, its duration increased and its efficiency improved. We observed a significant effect of seasonality in the association of evening alertness with sleep onset. Our results replicate previous findings regarding sleep during overwintering in Antarctica, adding the description of the role of napping and the report of a possible modulatory effect of seasonality in the relation between sleep and alertness. Napping should be considered as an important factor in the scheduling of activities of multicultural crews that participate in Antarctica.

Adaptación y validación de un test de cohesión grupal para bases antárticas: cogba

La cohesión grupal es unos de los factores que facilita la adaptación al medioambiente polar, pero hacen falta estudios específicos que analicen la cohesión social en bases antárticas. Se llevó a cabo una adaptación del test de Buckner (1988) Neighborhood Cohesion Instrument para ser empleado en bases antárticas argentinas. Se tradujo de inglés al castellano y se adaptó terminología usada en las campañas antárticas. La muestra estuvo constituida por personal civil y militar de dos bases antárticas, con un n = 100. Se realizó un análisis factorial de Factores Principales que produjo cinco factores. Se tomó el factor principal para la construcción de una escala unidimensional de 18 ítems, con un alfa de Cronbach de .907. Las preguntas en clave negativa descartadas durante el análisis hacen pensar en la negación de la conflictividad que suele prevalecer en las bases antárticas y se plantea la necesidad de generar instrumentos para medir los aspectos de la cohesión grupal en relación al trabajo y las tareas, así como contemplar estudios en relación al conflicto

Social Cohesion is an important adaptative factor for facilitating living in polar environments, however few studies on the subject have been performed. Here we adapted Buckners Neighborhood Cohesion Test (Buckner 1998) for its use in Argentinean bases in Antartica by translating it from English to Spanish and adding Antarctic-specific terminology to it. From a sample of civilian and military personnel from two Antarctic bases (n = 100), a factor analysis revealed five Principal Factors. The main factor was used to construct a uni-dimensional scale of 18 items, with a Cronbachs alpha of .907. Negatively keyed items that were discarded during the analysis suggest that denial of unrest is usually prevalent in Antarctic bases, and poses the need to generate tools to measure task-related aspects of group cohesion and use them for further studying social conflicts