Long-duration space missions entail that few individuals live and work for a long period in a confined, isolated, extreme and potentially dangerous environment. One of the key questions for research is how these conditions affect individuals¿ emotion, cognition, and the ability to make efficient decisions, which has implications for health and safety. However, it is surprising that what is available to date comes from studies that have considered the ability to make optimal decisions independent of emotions. It is well established that cognitive and emotional processes are intertwined as emotions help our decision-making by biasing our choices away from signals of danger, guide our attention by prioritizing some aspects of the situation over others (Pecchinenda et al. 2016), affect the way events are appraised (e.g. Pecchinenda, 2001), and shape decisions by modulating the salience of different outcomes. In addition, loneliness from isolation may affect the propensity to take risks through similar mechanisms. The proposed longitudinal study builds upon our past findings and aims at clarifying the effects of isolation and extreme environment on emotion and cognition involved in decisions made by crew-members at the Antarctic Concordia Station and by crew-members of the SIRIUS isolation study. By using a multi-measures approach aimed at assessing the effects of extreme conditions on emotion, loneliness, decision-making under uncertainty and known risks (Sdoia & Ferlazzo, 2008; 2012) as well as on psychophysiological and bio-marker measures, our interest is on the early signs of biased processing and decision making with an eye on the possible countermeasures to prevent or limit unfavourable outcomes. Indeed, the recent Sars-Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of self-isolation and social distancing measures necessary to contain contagions, have made this research topic more actual and of wider interest than previously thought.
