PhD candidate Frank Schilder, along with colleagues, has published a new article on the use of Virtual Battle Space and heat stress for stress research. This study investigated how the combination of heat and virtual combat scenarios can be used to elicit physical and psychological stress responses in military personnel.
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Relevance
The findings of the current study provide valuable insights in how stress, such as experienced during deployment, affects the body. Military personnel often perform operations under challenging conditions, such as extreme heat, which can impact their performance. This study examine has examined how heat and operational stress combined may lead to bodily changes, such as an elevated heart rate. By simulating the scenarios in a safe, controlled environment, meaningful understanding is acquired into how military personnel respond. This can help in developing training programs that equip military personnel for highly demanding deployments, enabling them to cope with stress more effectively and remain operational in real-life scenarios.
Results
The research revealed that a combination of heat stress and virtual combat scenarios can induce a stress response in military personnel. This is indicated by an increase in heart rate and a reduction in heart rate variability (time interval between consecutive heartbeats). The group not exposed to heat exhibited solely a reduction in heart rate variability, while stress hormone levels in their saliva remained unchanged.
Furthermore, military personnel were asked to evaluate their own stress levels. Their perceived stress remained unchanged during heat exposure.
Conclusions
Based on heart rate data, we can conclude that the combination of heat and virtual combat scenarios induces a potential stress response. However, the fact that the level of stress hormones remained unchanged may indicate that the method is not yet sufficiently effective or stressful for military personnel.