After 40 days in voluntary isolation, 15 people in a scientific experiment have emerged from a vast dark cave in southwestern France.

For most of the eight men and seven women, time passed more slowly in the dark, damp depths of the Lombrives cave in the French Pyrenees.

The experiment was to help researchers understand how people adapt to drastic changes in living conditions and environments.

Those in the cave had no clocks, no light and no contact with the world above.

The 15 participants in the Deep Time project left the Lombrives cave Saturday to a round of applause, all wearing special glasses to protect their eyes.