Study of cognitive performance and psychophysiological state of an operator in conditions of isolation and crowding

Introduction. In the context of the pandemic of the new coronavirus and the measures taken to contain the spread of infection, including quarantine measures and transfer to remote work, there is a lack of knowledge about the effects of short- and long-term isolation on psychological well-being and cognitive performance of a person. In this situation, the closest model for studying the processes of adaptation to the conditions of isolation and crowding are isolation experiments.

The study aims to research the cognitive performance and psychophysiological state of a person in conditions of isolation and crowding.

Materials and methods. Scientists conducted a 14-day isolation experiment simulating a flight to the moon at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences: 6 subjects (4 men, 2 women) worked for two weeks and lived in a hermetic volume with an area of 12 sq². With the help of situational anxiety assessment, acoustic speech analysis, cognitive and sensorimotor tests, experts obtained data on the relationship between the psychophysiological state of a person and his productivity.

Results. Researchers have identified significant correlations between situational anxiety and acoustic characteristics of speech. On days when the subjects spoke at a lower volume (р<0,0001) and had more pauses in their speech (р<0,01), and there was additional variability in the voice amplitude of the speech signal (shimmer effect) (р<0,0001), the subjects noted greater anxiety. Subjectively perceived anxiety correlated with cognitive performance. In a more anxious state, the subjects made more mistakes in mathematical calculations (p<0.01), they needed more time to solve (p<0.001); lability (p<0.01) and errors (p<0.0001) also increased when performing the sensorimotor RDO test.

Limitations. The limitations of this study were a small sample size, the duration of isolation exposure, as well as a limited number of methods used to study the physiological state of a person.

Conclusions. The researchers found reliable connections between the indicator of situational anxiety, acoustic characteristics of speech and cognitive performance. The psychophysiological state of the subjects affected the quality of the operator's tasks. Isolation and crowding by themselves did not become significant psychological stressors in this experiment, this was due to the motivation of the subjects. Experts found an increase in anxiety a few days before the experiment due to changes in the usual lifestyle, feelings of insecurity and a large number of examinations.

Ethics. The Commission on Biomedical Ethics of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation (Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences) approved experimental program No. 573 dated April 1, 2021 in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration of 1964. Each study participant voluntarily signed an informed consent after having the potential risks, benefits and nature of the upcoming study explained to her/him.

Contribution:
Lebedeva S.A. — the concept and design of the study, data collection and processing, writing the text;
Shved D.M. — the concept and design of the study, editing.

Funding. RNF No. 18-75-10086-P.

Conflict of interests. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Received: 20.03.2022 / Accepted: 15.04.2022 / Published: 25.05.2022

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