Response pattern of human cognitive performance under continuous humid-hot exposure

In recent years, the increasing global warming has caused frequent heat waves, which has brought continuous high temperature and humidity weather, and the resulting problem of human cognitive impairment has attracted more and more social attention. To explore the response of human cognitive performance under continuous humid-hot exposure, five continuous cognitive tests are conducted under the exposure of humid-hot environments with temperature of 32, 35, 38,41 ℃ and relative humidity of 70%, and the variation characteristics of cognitive test results (average reaction time and average accuracy rate) of 14 male subjects with environmental temperature are observed. Cognitive testing is uninterrupted during exposure until the subject refuses to continue the trial. The results show that the average reaction time of subjects to deal with cognitive tasks increases with the increase of environmental temperature, and the average accuracy rate decreases with the increase of environmental temperature. During the exposure time, the average reaction time increases in turn in the first three tests and then decreases in the fourth and fifth tests. The average accuracy rate continues to decrease in the first three tests and increases rapidly in the fourth and fifth tests. In addition, the relative cognitive performance decreases with the increase of environmental temperature, but the rate of decline slows down after the environmental temperature is higher than 35 ℃. The relative cognitive performance shows an approximate U-shaped distribution during the exposure time, and the higher the environmental temperature, the earlier the time corresponding to the lowest point of the U-shaped curve. The study provides a potential solution for the assessment of cognitive abilities in humid-hot environments.