They locked 15 people in a cave for 40 days without technology for scientific study: these are the results

To isolate oneself from society for a month without being able to communicate: a dream for some, a nightmare for others. This is what the Franco-Swiss explorer did Christian Clot with a team of 14 volunteers who accompanied him in the experimento “Deep Time” (Deep time) in a cave in the French Pyrenees.

The participants, seven women and eight men between 27 and 50 years old, ended their unusual experience this Saturday and showed themselves dazzled by the sun in front of his family, friends and a team of journalists. They wore dark glasses, they were a little pale, but in a good mood.

In the cave they had to get used to a temperature of 12 ° C and 95% humidityThey also produced electricity through a pedal system and collected water at a depth of 45 meters. They cooked using jugs and ingested an innovative capsule that allowed them to monitor their health and record their heart rate, temperature and microbiota data.

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“The humidity is very shocking. The need for food increased with time and with fatigue, ”Clot said at the press conference outside the cave. Emilie Kim Foo, a 29-year-old patient, said “It was a real shock” when they told him that the 40 days had already passedbecause he thought less time had passed.

The experience had like main objective to analyze the adaptability of the human being subjected to long periods of isolation where the reference points are lost and distortions are generated in the spatial-temporal perception. In addition, researchers seek to understand the cognitive biases that allow adaptation in a context where the normal functioning of the circadian rhythm is disturbed.

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As expected, the stay in the cave affected the participants’ sleep cycles: when some people woke up, others prepared to sleep. “We had no temporary landmarks»Explained Tiphaine Vuarier, a 32-year-old psychomotor. “We probably sleep more on some nights and less on others,” added Marie Caroline Lagachem, another volunteer.

The team of scientists participating in “Deep Time” was in charge of collect data on the brain and cognitive abilities of participants before entering the cave, to be able to compare them later with those collected at the exit. This methodology will allow them to carry out studies on changes in the nervous system linked to the exceptional environment in which they lived.

However, the experiment conducted by Christian Clot which cost $ 1.4 million aroused criticism in the scientific community and several researchers were skeptical of the possible outcomes due to the lack of a sufficiently “rigorous” framework.

Pierre Marie Lledo, director of the “Genes, Synapse and Cognition” laboratory at the National Center for Scientific Research and of the “Perception and Memory” unit at the Institut Pasteur, underlined that the absence of a “control group” will prevent scientific validation of the conclusions to which “Deep Time” happens.

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Etienne Koechlin, director of the cognitive neuroscience laboratory of the Escuela Normal Supérieure (ENS), which participates in research on volunteers resulting from isolation in the cave, defended its “innovative” character and highlighted the way the data was collected.

Meanwhile, the 15 people who shared 40 days in the Pyrenees cave will have to resume normal lives. “Getting out of the cave is very difficult to live with, we have to get back in phase with (our) world and say goodbye, ”concluded the expedition leader.