Max E Levine | PubMed Health

PubMed2003

Relationship between temporal changes in cardiac parasympathetic activity and motion sickness severity.

Chemotherapy-induced nausea has been associated with a time-related decrease in cardiac parasympathetic activity. We tested the hypothesis that a time-related decrease in cardiac parasympathetic activity would also be associated with nausea and other motion sickness symptoms during illusory self-motion (vection). Fifty-nine participants (aged 18-34 years: 25 male) were exposed to a rotating optokinetic drum to induce vection. Symptoms of motion sickness and an estimate of cardiac parasympathetic activity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) were obtained at baseline and throughout a drum-rotation period. As expected, motion sickness symptoms increased and RSA decreased over time during drum rotation. Moreover, greater decreases in RSA over time correlated with greater motion sickness severity. These results suggest that a time-related decrease in cardiac parasympathetic activity may be an important correlate of nausea and motion sickness across different evocative contexts.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Spatial task performance, sex differences, and motion sickness susceptibility.

There are substantial individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness, yet little is known about what mediates these differences. Spatial ability and sex have been suggested as possible factors in this relationship. 89 participants (57 women) were administered a Motion Sickness Questionnaire that assesses motion sickness susceptibility, a Water-level Task that gauges sensitivity to gravitational upright, and a Mental Rotation Task that tests an individual's awareness of how objects typically move in space. Significant sex differences were observed in performance of both the Water-level Task (p<.01), and the Mental Rotation Task (p<.005), with women performing less accurately than men. Women also had significantly higher scores on the Motion Sickness Questionnaire (p<.005). Among men, but not women, significant negative relationships were observed between Water-level Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.001) and between Mental Rotation Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.005). In conclusion, women performed significantly more poorly than men did on the spatial ability tasks and reported significantly more bouts of motion sickness. In addition, men showed a significant negative relationship between spatial ability and motion sickness susceptibility.

Adolescent↗