Performance and stress

The following program is produced by the University of Michigan broadcasting service under a grant he

made from the National Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the

National Association of educational broadcasters performance and

stress program from the series human behavior social and

medical research produced by the University of Michigan broadcasting service

with special assistance from the Mental Health Research Institute of the University of Michigan.

These programs have been developed from interviews with men and women who have the too

often on glamorous job of basic research. Research in medicine the

physical sciences social sciences and the behavioral sciences.

Occasionally you will hear what may seem like strange or unfamiliar silence. These are

the sounds of the participants office laboratory or clinic where the interviews were

first recorded. The people you will hear today are Dr. Louis Jay

Wess head of the department of psychiatry neurology and behavioral

sciences at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City Oklahoma.

And Dr. Robert H Felix director of the National Institute of Mental Health in

Bethesda Maryland. And my name is Glenn Phillips.

Humans have been studied under normal conditions of stress rather extensively. But

little is known about their capabilities or limitations. When more extreme

conditions are presented the very nature of an expanding understanding of the

universe will exert more and more strain and stress to daily living will

manage us aside from daily routine. Some more dramatic

conditions confronting him will be long stretches in relative confinement in a submarine for

example a feat already accomplished confinement in space vehicle

a step just around the corner. Pressures and responsibility of government office.

Also such other stress as has been vividly demonstrated by enemy induced insult to

mind and body. Not only is a better understanding needed of stress

situation but we need to know techniques that may be used to improve

performance. What are some of the facts known by scientists.

Dr. Robert Felix made this statement.

We know for instance that. Various kinds of stresses and

strains under which a person lives can cause.

Disorders in the way the cream glands function

the types of hormones which are elaborated work of such great

scientists as Dr Hans Saturday and Canada doctor

doctors Pincus and Hoagland in Massachusetts and a number of others

have pointed out the various ways in which individuals respond

to stress in sickness and in health. Well it may well be then that

a healthy environment throws sufficient stress on an individual that he

is eventually compensates

physically. By this I mean that no longer can he adapt to this stress

as a normal person does and as a result various

of his bodily functions do not perform in

a completely normal manner and he produces substances

biochemical substances which in effect are what we call

psycho memetic. That is they. They produce or

mimic a psychotic state see motion only disturb

States.

Now.

As one tries to adapt to this unhealthy social

situation he adopts certain psychological mechanisms to make this

possible. It may be that these can become so disordered

as a result of continued failure to adapt socially

that they contribute to the stress which

in the end causes the breakdown of the adaptive mechanism.

Dr Louis J West and his associates at the University of Oklahoma medical school

have spent a great amount of time and energy studying man under stress condition.

Dr. West also has studied military personnel over many years as they have confronted

stressful situations.

He discussed his general feelings and his interest in this area and a great many

interesting and valuable observations have

come from the most terrible of human activities. It's almost as though

nature feels that we ought to be rewarded for what we've gone through.

For example the atomic research

which was essentially geared to destructive purposes

has led us through the use of radioactive tracer materials to

methods whereby we can understand how human beings work

better than we ever were able to do before.

Similarly in a sphere of psychological stress and

suffering that people have had to undergo in war time.

We have obtained some leads that now seem to hold promise

in behavioral science today.

To me one of the most interesting aspects of all this comes out of one of the most

horrible. Of our recent wartime experiences.

As you know they communists in order to obtain false confessions

for political purposes have long resorted to

rather elaborate and terrifying system of

organized pressure upon individuals. The

nature of this stress sometimes erroneously called brainwashing is

one in which the individual is isolated

subjected to endless interrogations and

at the complete mercy of his captors is eventually brought to

confess to things that he never did and in some

instances apparently with a certain measure of change in his

ability to determine himself whether or not he's innocent or guilty.

My own study days that began with such cases

and with a military requirements for understanding them.

Has now led to completely a different area of study

which I think holds promise in just the opposite direction.

And other words forced interrogations for political

purposes might be considered exercises in breaking people down.

We hope that eventually we will be able to develop information that will enable us

to put people back together again who have broken down under the stress and strain

of everyday life people who now occupy more than half of all

the hospital beds in this country.

To illustrate some of the points he has just made I asked Dr. West if it were

possible to know or distinguish the difference stresses that might be produced under

different situations.

Well that's a very good question and it's one that has bedeviled investigators for a long

time. And it appeared that there was no such thing as a

universal Strasse on man's strength this might be another man's phone

and vice versa. And approaching the problem

of. The Air Force prisoners who gave false confessions

under stress similar to the famous case of carnal men

Zandi and other political prisoners. We endeavored to

single out the aspects of this situation that

produced a affects breaking down a man's will

or his capacity to cope with the situation

enough to get him to admit to having done something he didn't

do. Contrary to his training and his background and

his beliefs we considered many things

drugs hypnosis Pavlovian conditioning

or just plain torture in the sense of

bringing a person to the point of doing anything to get relief from pain

and in no instance were we able to satisfy

ourselves. That any of

these things or even a combination of them could account for the remarkably good

results that the Communists were obtaining in getting

confessions of germ warfare from our fliers who had indeed not been

engaging in germ warfare. In fact it was in the search

for our secret is that the lead

presented itself to us that finally enabled us to see what was really under our

noses all the time. Some of these prisoners were given

drugs white powder in the food or some such thing. But this was

not a sedative or a drug which cause mental

disorganization like LSD. As far as we could determine it was a

simple stimulant or something like men's. And we couldn't

understand why they were trying to keep people awake.

And then we recalled that there had been some work during World War Two.

Prolonged sleep deprivation in Maine which indicated that if people were kept awake

long enough they might develop a mental illness and perhaps if they

became disorganized in their personalities it would be possible to get them

to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. With this in mind we

began to turn our attention to the whole issue of the

requirement that is universal for sleep

and the degree to which deprivation of sleep would lead

inevitably disastrous consequences.

From the point of view of mental function it's like deprivation of water will lead to

an evitable disastrous consequences in the total biology of a man.

We know that animals can be killed by keeping them awake long enough but we don't know why

they die. At the time that we begin to

look into this further the scientific literature was

conflict you will sense they Army studies

during World War 2. There had been additional work extensive work done at Walter

Reed. This did not seem to indicate that at least for periods up

to 96 hours that a major

personality disorder could be produced by prolonged wakefulness.

The question then arose whether more extended periods of sleep deprivation

might produce the type of

mental disorder that could be exploited by a ruthless captor.

Scanty goes back to about 1896 but it's only been here and

there. And there have been a few individuals

who stayed awake a very long period of time but object of studies of

their cases were lacking. The first one to come to our

attention locally was when two radio announcers

engaged in a marathon broadcasting contest at the time

of the Oklahoma Centennial semi centennial

and 19 57. These two men stayed awake one hundred

sixty eight and a half hours.

During the last 60 or 70 hours of this time they were

both noted to be increasingly irrational

disorganized confused and generally to show the

signs of mental disturbance rather profound one and

one which did not reverse itself immediately as the textbooks would have led us to expect.

In fact these cases came to our attention only when one man reported for

treatment. After six weeks had gone by because he had

persistent episodes of blackouts and

loss of ability to do is every day work as a radio broadcaster.

And this case was reported in

what detail we had today American Medical Association.

But since we hadn't been on the spot this so to

speak we still are frustrated in our desire to learn exactly

what changes take place in a human being who approaches the limits and

Durrance with regard to sleep deprivation. In other

words a person who is put under the most extreme stress in so far as

this can be called a stress and I'm sure it can be.

No one would argue about that.

Golden opportunity came last January when Mr.

Peter trip and New York radio broadcaster and

record spinner undertook to stay

awake for two hundred hours and marathon broadcast

for the March of Dimes campaign.

A team of scientists was assembled to study Mr.

Tripp during this. Since he insisted

on going ahead with it after we had all advised him not to and and apprised him

of the dangers involved.

He was studied extensively from psychological medical

physiological biochemical points of view

and was under constant observation by a team of psychiatrists psychiatric nurses

psychologists and assorted scientists for a total

period of about two weeks.

It's included in the baseline period of eight and a half

days that he actually did succeed in staying awake

and the recovery period afterwards.

Now there is an enormous body of data that we have

accumulated from the study much of it is not

analyzed and some of it is analyzed but not

coordinated with the rest. So I can't give you any

final answer. But there are few things that I can tell you that we

learn from Mr. Tripp's ordeal. The most important general

statement is that after about four days

even healthy well-adjusted

and highly motivated man will inevitably

begin to disorganize mentally it becomes impossible

for a person to continue.

To test reality successfully after that

period of time. We learned that he effects

of prolonged wakefulness.

Three in so far as that sleep is concerned.

First there's an increasing burden of sleepiness that anyone who's had to stay awake a long period of

time understands the second. And there are

little brief episodes of sleep that the Walter Reed

scientists have called micro Sleeps which are almost like little

fits or seizures during which a person may appear to be going about

his business but does sell for two or three second period

automatically and during that time like Lady Macbeth walking in

her sleep her eyes are open but their sense is shot.

During these brief micro sleeps a person is

behaving really awake but he's unable to deal with

the real environment at all during that period of time something he's supposed to be watching for

he'll miss it. An important thing for people who want

to drive day and night to keep in mind

especially at high speeds. In the third and in

some ways the most important finding. However with regard to

the mental effects. Is that a progressive

deterioration occurs involving the entire

gamut of capacities to deal with the real world.

Next trip experienced a wide variety of mental symptoms and these became

steadily worse as time went on. During the nights when he was usually

asleep they were worse than they were during the day. But

even with the ups and downs of the diurnal cycle which persists even when you're awake.

The overall picture was one of a progressive disorganized patient.

I mean by the time Mr. Chip had been awake a hundred hours he was

seeing things that weren't there. He recognized these as hallucinations

and didn't believe that they were truly important. By the time he'd been

awake one hundred and ninety hours he was

convinced that the things he saw had real Letty

and that they must have been put there for a purpose that there must be a plot against him.

And he showed all the classical symptoms. Mentally ill

person delusions hallucinations ideas of reference

disorientation in time and space. There are even times when he didn't know who

he was now. Along

with this went a series of

changes in ability to perform on a wide variety of psychological tests.

We discovered for example that vigilance is much more sensitive then

for example reaction time which holds up pretty well. If you

spot a danger you can react to it but you may not spot it.

Similarly we found out that certain aspects of bodily function.

For example the electrocardiogram were completely unaffected by this

tremendous ordeal but that the brain

waves electroencephalogram were profoundly

affected and that indeed there was a great deal of evidence

for a major disruption of brain function. It was this

that went along with the mental changes that we were able to see clinically.

There were also a number of other studies chemical studies and so on they were not

yet able to report. But in the ten

months that have passed since Mr. Tripp's

experience already a number of leads that were opened up

from that study have been pursued with profit.

For example it was found that after Mr. trip planned they went to sleep

he dreamed a surprising amount of the time. Dr.

William Dement of Mt. Sinai Hospital has been studying dreams

and who measured Mr. Tripp's dreaming during the 48 hours after

he was allowed to go to sleep.

Thought that it appeared as though he seemed to be catching up on his dreaming

as well as on his sleeping. And it occurred to Dr. Dement that there

may be such a thing as a requirement and that a person who is kept awake

a long period of time may also be deprived of his dreaming time as well as of his

sleeping time. Since he has been pursuing this issue

and has raised a great many interesting new questions and has turned up a

good deal of important new information about they

need that every person has to dream every night.

I cite this as merely one example of a way in

which by this route we came from.

A requirement to understand what was happening to men under stress in war

to a situation in which we are developing new insights into our human

nature and insights which may have particular application in the

treatment of the mentally ill.

Deprivation of sleep is only one form of stress. One that all of us have

experience. However the stress produced in this instance be compared

to other types of stress are the results the same or similar under different

conditions.

Again Dr. West said well actually we don't know and we're trying to

find out. Certain things are obviously required for life.

And impairing the supply of the will produce profound

changes in human behavior including mental functions where water

food oxygen and sleep

are for things without which people cannot live on this globe.

Now when it comes to. Other functions

of the environment. They get into.

The significance of past experience in interpretating the

meaning of events. Loud noises

which are explosions threatening life and be very stressful.

Loud noises which are blasting for new construction may not be.

However I think it's interesting to me

that together with the sleep deprivation research here at the University of

Oklahoma Medical Center we have become interested in another

issue which seems to be very closely

related to it. Dr. J. T. Surely a

professor in the department here has been cutting people

off from their environment. By

submerging them in a tank of water and body temperature for prolonged periods of time.

This work which derives from the experiments of Donald have

at McGill in sensory isolation and

using a method that is the underwater method that was

worked out by Dr. John Leslie at the National Institutes of

Mental Health seeks to determine the degree

and manner in which every individual. Requires a certain

amount of varying stimulation from the environment. If he is

to function normally it now appears that in a relatively

short period of time a few hours at the most normal

person who is completely cut off from his surroundings in this way will begin to

experience some of the symptoms of mental derangement

similar to those experienced by a person who is deprived of sleep for days

and days. Similar to those

produced by the administration of drugs

which like LSD or mescaline impair a

person's contact with the environment in another way by poisoning the

sensory apparatus. The

number of other areas of research are bringing us

closer and closer to a kind of universal picture

of the nature of the relationship between man and his environment.

This relationship is a terribly complicated one of course and the

adaptation of a man to his environment is one which involves a

great many different systems and all the systems from the

atomic level the chemicals in the body the molecules

the organs operating

individually and the body operating as a whole. And then people

operating in groups represent a series of systems from the simplest to

the most complex. And these systems all of which are

involved in adaptation of man to his environment.

Simultaneously in the most complex

relationship to each other these

transactions among different systems that add

up to the whole meaning of a human person represents

a total sphere of behavioral science. And it is.

Through the development of behavioral science in such a

frame of reference that I feel we have

our chance not only to do something about the terrible and growing problem of

mental illness but perhaps to learn some something about

human nature that may enable us to preserve our race

from self extinction.

Today we have heard Dr. Lewis J West discussing current research and

investigation into stress situations presented to man. Earlier

in the program we heard a comment by Dr. Robert feely. Next

week you will hear Rev. C. Leslie Glenn Dr. Earl Loomis and

Reverend George Christian Andersen as they discuss religion and

science. On the next programme from the series human

behavior social and medical research consultant for this

program was Professor Arthur W. Melton of the University of

Michigan Department of Psychology. We extend our special thanks to the Mental Health

Research Institute of the University of Michigan for their assistance.

When Philip speaking asking that you join us next week and thanking you for being with us

at this time this program has been produced by the University of Michigan

broadcasting service under a grant in aid from the National Educational Television and Radio

Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters.

This is the NEA E.B. Radio Network.