School of Emergency Management & Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing 100083, China.
School of Emergency Management & Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing 100083, China.
Physiol Behav. 2021 Mar 1;230:113296. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113296. Epub 2020 Dec 19.
Many jobs like outdoor work and emergency rescue have to be exposed to extremely cold environments. The combined effects of the cold exposure and work intensity on human cognitive performance remain unclear. In this paper, the experiments of six Chinese young men exposed to an extremely cold environment (-10 °C) were conducted in a climatic chamber. The work intensity level was graded according to the metabolic rate corresponding to three walking speeds. Nine cognitive functions and one perceived were recorded to evaluate the subjects' cognitive performance, including NCTB (seven items), Stroop, and RPE were measured. The increase of workload from moderate to high could lead to the acceleration of fatigue speed and the aggravation of fatigue degree 5 min earlier. Moderate work intensity is a noteworthy work level in extremely cold environment, which is an inflection point in the impact of fatigue and cognitive levels. The manual dexterity significantly increases by the workload intensity, and the high work intensity makes the hands more dexterous (29% increase). Extremely cold environment has a significant effect on short-term memory (decreased 33%). The selective attention was reduced by 16% in the extremely cold environment. With the moderate work intensity in extremely cold environment, the perceived judgment response speed would decrease. The combined effects of the extremely cold environment and the workload on the cognitive functions of psychomotor ability and attention or sensorimotor speed should be paid more attention to.
许多工作，如户外工作和紧急救援，都必须暴露在极寒环境中。极寒环境暴露和工作强度对人体认知表现的综合影响尚不清楚。本文在环境舱内对 6 名中国青年男性进行了极寒环境（-10°C）下的实验。工作强度水平根据与三种步行速度相对应的代谢率进行分级。记录了九项认知功能和一项感知，以评估受试者的认知表现，包括 NCTB（七项）、斯特鲁普和 RPE。从中等工作强度到高工作强度的增加会导致疲劳速度加快，疲劳程度加重 5 分钟。中等工作强度是极寒环境中一个值得注意的工作水平，是疲劳和认知水平影响的转折点。在工作强度的作用下，手的灵巧度显著提高，高工作强度使手更加灵巧（增加 29%）。极寒环境对短期记忆有显著影响（减少 33%）。在极寒环境中，选择性注意力下降了 16%。在极寒环境中，随着中等工作强度的增加，感知判断反应速度会降低。极寒环境和工作负荷对心理运动能力和注意力或感觉运动速度的认知功能的综合影响值得更多关注。
