Human psychophysiology in Antarctica

Abstract

Antarctica is a natural laboratory for scientists and an adventure destination for tourists. It has challenging yet beautiful landscape. Due to extreme environment and isolation, wintering over in Antarctica is still challenging, even with advancement in accommodations. Polar scientists have focused on the aspects of Antarctica according to their specialty. For example, psychologists have highlighted polar psychology; likewise, physiologists and other allied human biologists have pointed-out to biochemistry, immunology, and stress biology. A researcher new to Antarctica gets confused to encounter diverse literature of different domains. These reasons require a review on the scientific aspects of wintering-over in Antarctica to enlighten first time readers. Journal articles from PubMed and Google Scholar (up to 2021) were searched with the search terms “Antarctica,” in combination with the words “human physiology” and “human psychology”. Vivid direct quotes of early explorers of the heroic age of polar expeditions are described and 53 articles were finally selected. The human psychophysiology points of discussion in this narrative review are geomagnetism, circadian rhythm, immunity, hypoxia, bone metabolic changes, acute mountain sickness, and stress biology concerning extended stay in Antarctica.