USSAT-LES-BAINS, France: A group of 15 French volunteers on Saturday left a cave where they had stayed for 40 days, in an experiment probing the limits of human adaptability to isolation.
Dazzled by the light and with pale faces but otherwise healthy, the group led by the French-Swiss explorer Christian Clot emerged at around 10:30am local time from the Lombrives cave near Ariege in southwestern France.
The underground isolation experiment saw the subjects, aged between 27 and 50, give up watches, phones and natural light, exchanging modern comforts for a cave system with a constant temperature of 12 degrees Celsius and 95% humidity.
Members had to generate their own electricity with a pedal bike and draw water from a well 45 metres below the earth.
Clot, founder of the Human Adaptation Institute, had said the so-called Deep Time experiment would test humans’ ability to adapt to the loss of their frame of reference for time and space.
Such questions have gained urgency given the widespread isolation people have experienced during the coronavirus pandemic.
But while some researchers joined the project, other scientists criticised the setup of the experiment.
Etienne Koechlin, head of the cognitive neuroscience lab at France’s prestigious ENS graduate school, said the research was “ground-breaking”.
Data on participants’ brain activity and cognitive function were gathered before they entered the cave, for comparison with their levels after they left.
But like other experts, Pierre-Marie Lledo of the CNRS government research centre and the Institut Pasteur noted that there was no “control group” in the experiment.
Comparing an unaffected group with those making changes is usually a vital component in scientific studies.
The volunteers were planning to attend a news conference later on Saturday to talk about their experience.