Effects of the watch system of job management on central hemodynamic parameters and the constant potential of the brain

Abstract

The effects of the watch system of job management on central hemodynamic parameters and the constant potential of the brain were studied in sailors during a long voyage. Twenty crew members were examined during a 120-day translatitudinal voyage. The studies were performed on days 4–6, 40–42, 73–75, and 107–109 of the voyage. It was found that the role of the peripheral regulatory loop in maintaining physiological functions increases during the second half of the voyage and that the functional activity before a watch determines the changes in the parameters by the end of the watch. For each stage of the study, the baseline value of the constant potential of the brain is an important element of functional activity. The system of ratios between parameters before and after a watch that is formed in the early period of the voyage breaks up during the second month, the general reactivity of the body after a watch being independent of the reactivity before the watch; the reactivity is stochastic and is mainly controlled by central mechanisms. In the second month of the voyage, the first signs of a strategy aimed at making the functioning more economical are observed in crew members. The second and third months of the voyage are characterized by a considerable strain of the mechanisms of adaptation, activity, and reactivity in sailors. During the third month of the voyage, overfatigue develops.