Cognitive flexibility and somatic marker in volunteer firefighters Arequipa

Abstract

Firefighters are constantly at risk, they must control not only emergency but also various factors that influence their own life and that of others, therefore, to make wise and quick decisions, it is a necessity. This making decisions brings into play many cognitive processes, both cognitive and affective nature. We intend to compare the performance in executive function tasks and somatic marker between subjects who work in emergency situations (firefighters) and control subjects (no firefighters), in addition to analyzing the variables of service in firefighters and their relationship to the performance of tests of executive function and somatic marker. The sample consisted of 31 firefighters and 29 control subjects. The computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task was used to measure the somatic marker and the Berg Card Sorting Test (BCST); a social-demographic datasheet for inquiring about the years of service, frequency of service, occupation and years of study was used too. The results showed a statistically significant co-relationship between the frequency of service and the reaction time of the Iowa advantageous responses (r = 0.408, p <.05), and between the frequency of service and categories achieved in the BCST on firefighters ( r = -0,492, p <.01), regarding the comparison of the analyzed groups, statistically significant differences were found in the reaction time to the choice of Iowa advantageous cards (U = 7066, p <.01) and disadvantageous ones ( U = 5845, p <.01); firefighters took less time compared to non-firefighters.