Anxiety and Motion Sickness Susceptibility May Influence the Ability to Update Orientation in the Horizontal Plane of Healthy Subjects.

Mónica Alcantara-Thome,Kathrine Jauregui-Renaud,José A Miguel-Puga

doi:10.3389/fnint.2021.742100

Mónica Alcantara-Thome, Kathrine Jauregui-Renaud + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.742100

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Abstract

Few studies have evaluated the influence of idiosyncrasies that may influence the judgment of space-time orientation after passive motion. We designed a study to assess the influence of anxiety/depression (which may distort time perception), motion sickness susceptibility (which has been related to vestibular function, disorientation, and to the velocity storage mechanism), and personal habits on the ability to update orientation, after passive rotations in the horizontal plane. Eighty-one healthy adults (22–64 years old) accepted to participate. After they completed an in-house general health/habits questionnaire, the short Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the short International Physical Activity Questionnaire, they were exposed to 10 manually driven whole-body rotations (45°, 90°, or 135°), in a square room, with distinctive features on the walls, while seated in the normal upright position, unrestrained, with noise-attenuating headphones and blindfolded. After each rotation, they were asked to report which wall or corner they were facing. To calculate the error of estimation of orientation, the perceived rotation was subtracted from the actual rotation. Multivariate analysis showed that the estimation error of the first rotation was strongly related to the results of the orientation test. The magnitude and the frequency of estimation errors of orientation were independently related to HADS anxiety sub-score and to adult motion sickness susceptibility, with no influence of age, but a contribution from the interaction of the use of spectacles, the quality of sleep and sex. The results suggest that idiosyncrasies may contribute to the space-time estimation of passive self-motion, with influence from emotional traits, adult motion sickness susceptibility, experience, and possibly sleep quality.

Highlights

Behavior in the environment requires a dynamic updating of the perceptions of the body and the surroundings of the body
All the participants denied having a history of dizziness, vertigo, unsteadiness, migraine, hearing loss, and neurological or psychiatric disorders; none of them had evidence of vestibular dysfunction assessed by neurootology evaluation with caloric/rotational tests, and all of them were naive to the study protocol and to the orientation test
Inaccurate estimation of orientation was observed after 34.3% of all rotations, with a typical error of 45◦; overestimation of rotation was more frequent than underestimation of rotation (85.3% versus 14.7%)

Summary

Introduction

Behavior in the environment requires a dynamic updating of the perceptions of the body and the surroundings of the body. Evidence suggests that humans update egocentric, internalized versions of the surroundings to orient themselves as they move (Wang and Spelke, 2000). Neurons in the vestibular nuclei differentially encode active versus passive head motion; during active movements, distinct classes of neurons allow for reduction of vestibular signals in order to redirect gaze or to stabilize head in space (for review Cullen and Roy, 2004). It is unknown yet how this differential processing of head velocity at the vestibular nucleus contributes to other vestibular functions

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