From the Antarctic: Cold and dark affecting workers' memory

By SIMON COLLINS

People working in Antarctica's cold, dark winter are losing their short-term memory.

"You put down something and you can't remember where you put it," said Chris Knight, a mechanic at New Zealand's Scott Base in 2001-2002, who is staying for another winter next year. "You might go outside and you can't remember what you are doing. You slow down a bit in movement."

The disorder, named polar T3 syndrome after a thyroid hormone called triiodothyronine (T3), is being investigated by doctors in United States bases at McMurdo Sound and the South Pole.

Twenty volunteers at each base will take part in an experiment next winter in which they will sit beside a light box for 30 minutes each morning to see whether exposure to light can counter the effects of the Antarctic's five months of total darkness from April to August.

Previous research has found that a daily thyroxin pill reduces other symptoms of the disorder, such as tiredness and depression.

The senior doctor at McMurdo, Dr Jotham Lefford, said the syndrome also raised people's blood pressure and cholesterol.

"I think it's pretty common from my winter spent down here," he said. "Everyone talks about it in the community."

"People take to carrying round little notebooks and writing down things that they may forget.

"They report that when they come off the ice they continue to feel that way for anywhere from three to six weeks."