Reducing the Symptoms of Visually-Induced Motion Sickness: An Experimental Analysis

Abstract

Overcoming motion sickness, correcting performance, and regaining normal perception in space may involve many of the same processes as adaptation to perceptual rearrangement in general. This study examined the effect of adaptation training in a form of self-propelled simulated rotary stimulation (SRS) on simulation sickness by inducing graded motion sickness through the systematic distortion of the relevant characteristics of a virtual reality (VR) and optokinetic rotating drum (OKN) devices. Twenty adults between the ages of 18 and 34 participated in this experiment. In the control condition, ten participants were required to complete only a single self-propelled rotation simulation (SRS) trial, and then use a head-tracked mounted VR device plus exposure to an OKN device. In the experimental condition, a group of 10 participants took part in a five-session study in which they were exposed to five trials of the SRS and to the VE and OKN rotating drum. Immediately following each task, all twenty participants from both groups were required to rate their level of dizziness. The results showed a significant main effect of adaptation training on both the VR and OKN rotating drum as reported by the dizziness ratings. These findings indicate that the difference in dizziness rates was markedly higher among the control group than the experimental group showing transfer of adaptation into both the VR and OKN rotating drum as a function of prior SRS exposure. These findings demonstrate the technical feasibility of developing a transfer of training technique or paradigm for the acquisition of adaptation from one condition that produces motion sickness to another different perceptual situation.