Motion sickness caused by rotations about Earth-horizontal and Earth-vertical axes

Abstract

Rotation at constant angular velocity about the head's Z-axis, with the rotational axis horizontal (barbecue-spit rotation), causes motion sickness and illusory perceptions of bodily movement. To determine whether such rotations about the head's X- and Y-axes cause similar effects, and to test the validity of the mismatch theory of motion sickness, more than 200 tests (using vertical axes as well as horizontal axes) were administered to 14 subjects. Three different visual conditions were also investigated: normal external vision, vision of only the inside walls of the rotating capsule, and eyes closed in the dark. In Earth-horizontal rotation, the X- and Y-axis stimuli were found to be equally as effective in provoking sickness as was the original Z-axis stimulus, and a comparable loss of perception of gravity occurred for all three stimuli. The horizontal axis stimuli were found to be very effective in producing sickness in all the three visual conditions, but the external vision condition was significantly less effective than the other two conditions. The findings were generally inconsistent with the mismatch theory.