Modeling sensory conflict and motion sickness in artificial gravity

Abstract

It is necessary to characterize the vestibular response associated with head movements for various centrifuge rotation rates if one is to explore short-radius centrifugation as a viable form of artificial gravity for future spaceflights. An existing motion sickness model was modified to design an adaptation protocol to facilitate head movements at a centrifuge speed of 30 rpm. Modification involved addition of a quantitative sensory conflict model to serve as the input to the motion sickness model. Sensory conflict in this context was based on the dynamics of head movements during centrifugation as well as a previously developed transfer function relating angular accelerations to semicircular canal firing rates. Additionally, an adaptation parameter based on comparison between model predictions and previous experimental results was added. A 3-day incremental adaptation protocol was conducted in which 16 subjects successfully made 30 yaw head movements during rotation at 30 rpm on day 3. Motion sickness results showed good agreement with model predictions and demonstrated the feasibility of adaptation to increasingly high rotation rates.