DEEP TIME STUDY

DEEP TIME STUDY

Subject : Science & tech

Context : A group of French volunteers have emerged from a cave after a 40-day study exploring the limits of human adaptability to isolation. The so-called Deep Time experiment came to an end, allowing the eight men and seven women, aged 27 to 50, who took part to leave the cave.

Concept :

• The 15 participants lived in the Lombrives cave in south-west France with no phones, clocks or sunlight. They slept in tents, made their own electricity, and had no contact with the outside world.
• The project aimed to test how people respond to losing their sense of time and space.
• During their isolation, the group had to organise tasks without being able to use a measure of time to create deadlines.
• Instead, they had to rely on their body clocks and sleep cycles to structure their days.
• In the cave, they had few modern comforts at their disposal. For example, volunteers had to generate their own electricity with a pedal bike and draw water from a well 45 m (146 ft) below the earth.

Significance

• The scientists behind the project say it will help them understand how people can adapt to extreme living conditions.
• The brain activity and cognitive function of volunteers was analysed before they entered the cave, to gather data for comparative studies after they left.
• The purpose of the study has particular relevance during the coronavirus pandemic, a time when lockdown measures have confined millions of people to isolation.