Abstract
Motion sickness is a common disease encountered in traditional vehicles as well as autonomous vehicles, which will negatively affect user acceptance. To make clear the pathogenesis of motion sickness, this study focused on drivers' brain activity changes before and after motion sickness happens. Based on the six-degree-of-freedom driving simulator and noninvasive functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a database containing driving operation data synchronized with drivers' brain activity record from 52 participants was collected under straight and curved driving conditions. The correlation analysis between motion sickness and changes of cerebral oxyhemoglobin concentration in the cerebral cortex was carried out based on this database. Results suggest that brain activity associated with motion sickness may differ under different driving conditions. However, the emergence of motion sickness responses is related to the occipital lobe under both driving conditions. Experimental results corroborate with several theoretical hypothesis about motion sickness in neuroscience. Consequently, this study proposes a new approach to research the mechanism of the correlation between motion sickness and cerebral cortex activity, which will contribute to developing the driving assistance system for preventing or alleviating motion sickness in autonomous vehicles.
Highlights
Autonomous vehicles are expected to replace conventional vehicles in the coming decades by providing various potential benefits [1], [2]
Studies on the pathogenesis of motion sickness by physiological signals will find out main factors that lead to motion sickness, contributing that the autonomous driving vehicle can be improved to minimize the effect of these factors on people
In the quantitative result under the straight driving condition, we find that, in both the Euclidean distance and cosine similarity, the values of channels 13 and 14 are less than the values of the other four channels, and it can be inferred that the visual cortex of the occipital lobe (BA17 and BA18) and the frontal cortex (BA6) are more active than the posterior frontal cortex (BA4) and the postcentral gyri (BA1, BA2 and BA3)
Summary
Autonomous vehicles are expected to replace conventional vehicles in the coming decades by providing various potential benefits [1], [2]. Autonomous vehicles enable drivers to focus on tasks other than vehicle navigation and increase the possibility of motion sickness [3]. Sivak and Schoettle’s study found that 6% to 12% of American adults suffered from moderate or severe motion sickness in autonomous vehicles based on the assumption that the cabin of self-driving vehicles would be similar to that of conventional vehicles, possibly resulting from some activities that have negative effects on motion sickness in autonomous vehicles (texting, reading and so on) [4]. User acceptance and, in turn, limit the potential socioeconomic benefits that this emerging technology may provide. Studies on the pathogenesis of motion sickness by physiological signals will find out main factors that lead to motion sickness, contributing that the autonomous driving vehicle can be improved to minimize the effect of these factors on people
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