Psychology: the experiment has 15 people trapped in a cave for 40 days without a sense of time

Would you agree to live in a cave for 40 days, completely surrounded by strangers and without access to a telephone, clock or natural light, just for the sake of science?

An extremely “first in the world” experiment is to see 15 people do just that, to explore the effects of long-term isolation on the human body, without the notion of time.

French volunteers, who do not receive compensation for their participation, are between 27 and 50 years old and include a biologist, a jeweler and a mathematics teacher.

Seized in the Lombrives cave in Ariège, the team has four tons of supplies to live on – along with water from the cave and a dynamo with a pedal for electricity.

Mission leader Christian Clot, who is one of the participants, was inspired to organize the test after seeing how the COVID-19 pandemic brought isolation into our lives.

However, the explorer has received some criticism in the French press, as he assumes the title of “researcher” while having no formal scientific training.

The “Deep Time” experiment began on Sunday, March 14 at 20:00 local time, and, if all goes well, will end on April 22.

The project’s findings could be relevant to future space missions, submarine crews, mining teams and other settings where people are locked up for long periods of time.

Deep Time follows in the footsteps of French geologist Michel Siffre, who spent several long periods underground, including a six-month period in 1972.

He found that the circadian cycle of the human body can vary in duration when not related to stimuli of natural light.

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“Losing time is the biggest disorientation that exists and this is the aspect that the Deep Time mission wants to better understand,” the team said on their website.

“During certain events, our perception of time changes – it seems to pass very slowly or very quickly, unrelated to the reality of every passing second.”

– What’s going on then? How to find the meaning of time? What are the connections between cognitive and biological time, between the brain and the genetic cells? ‘

“What is the relationship between perceived time and normative time, that of our watches?” How does our brain see time?

To answer these questions, the project leaders said that the fifteen participants will be monitored by a strong team of scientists from the surface, using data collected by an assortment of sensors.

One of the participants – 29-year-old Arnaud Burel – told Oddity Central that he agreed to take part in the unusual experiment to “taste this timeless life, which is impossible outside with our computers and mobile phones that they constantly remind us of our appointments and obligations. ‘

However, the biologist added, he agreed that spending almost six weeks locked in a cave with 14 strangers will not be easy and that he believes communication will be essential to ensure their time together will go smoothly. problems.

In Lombrives – the largest cave in Europe in terms of volume – the team will be forced to adapt to a constant temperature of 12 ° C (54 ° F) and 95% humidity.

In the cave, “three separate living spaces have been arranged – one for sleeping, one for living and one for conducting studies on the topography of the place, especially flora and fauna,” Clot told Le Parisian.

The experiment was funded by a total of 1.2 million euros (1 million pounds), both from public and private funding sources.

“This experiment is the first in the world,” he told neurologist Etienne Koechlin of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris on the Belgian news site 7sur7.

“Until now, all missions of this type have focused on studying the physiological rhythms of the body, but never on the impact of this type of temporal rupture on the cognitive and emotional functions of the human being,” he added.

More information about the experiment can be found on the Deep Time website.