The perception threshold of the vestibular Coriolis illusion.

Background: The vestibular Coriolis illusion is a disorienting sensation that results from a transient head rotation about one axis during sustained body rotation about another axis. Although often used in spatial disorientation training for pilots and laboratory studies on motion sickness, little is known about the minimum required rotation rate to produce the illusion.

Objective: This study determined the perception threshold associated with the Coriolis illusion.

Knowing what's coming: Anticipatory audio cues can mitigate motion sickness.

Being able to anticipate upcoming motion is known to potentially mitigate sickness resulting from provocative motion. We investigated whether auditory cues could increase anticipation and subsequently reduce motion sickness. Participants (N = 20) were exposed on a sled on a rail track to two 15-min conditions.

Knowing What's Coming: Unpredictable Motion Causes More Motion Sickness.

Objective: This study explores the role of anticipation in motion sickness. We compared three conditions varying in motion predictability and assessed the effect of anticipation on subsequent illness ratings using a within-subjects design.

Background: Anticipation is thought to play a role in motion sickness by reducing the discrepancy between sensed and expected sensory information.

Moving base driving simulators' potential for carsickness research.

We investigated whether motion sickness analogous to carsickness can be studied in a moving base simulator, despite the limited motion envelope. Importantly, to avoid simulator sickness, vision outside the simulator cabin was restricted. Participants (N = 16) were exposed blindfolded to 15-min lateral sinusoidal motion at 0.

Looking forward: In-vehicle auxiliary display positioning affects carsickness.

Carsickness is associated with a mismatch between actual and anticipated sensory signals. Occupants of automated vehicles, especially when using a display, are at higher risk of becoming carsick than drivers of conventional vehicles. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of positioning of in-vehicle displays, and subsequent available peripheral vision, on carsickness of passengers.

Treatment of vestibular disorders with weak asymmetric base-in prisms: An hypothesis with a focus on Ménière's disease.

Background: Regular treatments of Ménière's disease (MD) vary largely, and no single satisfactory treatment exists. A complementary treatment popular among Dutch and Belgian patients involves eyeglasses with weak asymmetric base-in prisms, with a perceived high success rate. An explanatory mechanism is, however, lacking.

The efficacy of airflow and seat vibration on reducing visually induced motion sickness.

Visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) is a well-known sensation in virtual environments and simulators, typically characterized by a variety of symptoms such as pallor, sweating, dizziness, fatigue, and/or nausea. Numerous methods to reduce VIMS have been previously introduced; however, a reliable countermeasure is still missing. In the present study, the effect of airflow and seat vibration to alleviate VIMS was investigated.

Differential effect of visual motion adaption upon visual cortical excitability.

The objectives of this study were ) to probe the effects of visual motion adaptation on early visual and V5/MT cortical excitability and ) to investigate whether changes in cortical excitability following visual motion adaptation are related to the degree of visual dependency, i.e., an overreliance on visual cues compared with vestibular or proprioceptive cues.

Framing visual roll-motion affects postural sway and the subjective visual vertical.

Effects of visual roll-motion on postural sway and the subjective visual vertical (SVV) often is studied using mechanical devices, whereas electronic displays offer cheaper and more flexible alternatives. These devices typically emit and reflect light scattered by the edges of the screen, providing Earth-fixed cues of verticality. These cues may decrease the effects of rotating stimuli, a possibility that has not been studied explicitly before in one experimental design.

The Effect of Optokinetic Stimulation on Perceptual and Postural Symptoms in Visual Vestibular Mismatch Patients.

Background: Vestibular patients occasionally report aggravation or triggering of their symptoms by visual stimuli, which is called visual vestibular mismatch (VVM). These patients therefore experience discomfort, disorientation, dizziness and postural unsteadiness.

Objective: Firstly, we aimed to get a better insight in the underlying mechanism of VVM by examining perceptual and postural symptoms.

Perceived radial translation during centrifugation.

Background: Linear acceleration generally gives rise to translation perception. Centripetal acceleration during centrifugation, however, has never been reported giving rise to a radial, inward translation perception.

Objective: To study whether centrifugation can induce a radial translation perception in the absence of visual cues.

Interaction between Depth Order and Density Affects Vection and Postural Sway.

Objective: Vection, a feeling of self-motion while being physically stationary, and postural sway can be modulated by various visual factors. Moreover, vection and postural sway are often found to be closely related when modulated by such visual factors, suggesting a common neural mechanism. One well-known visual factor is the depth order of the stimulus.

Self-driving carsickness.

This paper discusses the predicted increase in the occurrence and severity of motion sickness in self-driving cars. Self-driving cars have the potential to lead to significant benefits. From the driver's perspective, the direct benefits of this technology are considered increased comfort and productivity.

Less sickness with more motion and/or mental distraction.

Background: Motion sickness may reduce passenger comfort and crew performance. Countermeasures are dominated by medication with specific and often undesirable side effects.

Objective: To shown that sickness due to motion can be reduced by adding an inherent non-sickening vibration and by mental distraction.

Improved depth perception with three-dimensional auxiliary display and computer generated three-dimensional panoramic overviews in robot-assisted laparoscopy.

In comparison to open surgery, endoscopic surgery offers impaired depth perception and narrower field-of-view. To improve depth perception, the Da Vinci robot offers three-dimensional (3-D) video on the console for the surgeon but not for assistants, although both must collaborate. We improved the shared perception of the whole surgical team by connecting live 3-D monitors to all three available Da Vinci generations, probed user experience after two years by questionnaire, and compared time measurements of a predefined complex interaction task performed with a 3-D monitor versus two-dimensional.

Unilateral otolith centrifugation by head tilt.

Background: To test for otolith asymmetries, several studies described horizontal translation of the body and head en bloc during fast vertical axis rotation. This stimulus causes one otolithic organ to rotate on-axis, and the other to experience centripetal acceleration.

Objective: To test a new, more simple method of unilateral stimulation with head tilt and the body remaining on axis.

Cinerama sickness and postural instability.

Unlabelled: Motion sickness symptoms and increased postural instability induced by motion pictures have been reported in a laboratory, but not in a real cinema. We, therefore, carried out an observational study recording sickness severity and postural instability in 19 subjects before, immediately and 45 min after watching a 1 h 3D aviation documentary in a cinema. Sickness was significantly larger right after the movie than before, and in a lesser extent still so after 45 min.

Measuring dynamics of the subjective vertical and tilt using a joystick.

Humans are able to estimate the vertical direction of an Earth fixed reference frame, which estimate is known as the subjective vertical (SV). To identify the SV, a distinction must be made between accelerations due to self-motion and gravity. Previous studies on this topic measured the SV using a variety of methods possibly affecting the outcome differently.

The effect of internal and external fields of view on visually induced motion sickness.

Field of view (FOV) is said to affect visually induced motion sickness. FOV, however, is characterized by an internal setting used by the graphics generator (iFOV) and an external factor determined by screen size and viewing distance (eFOV). We hypothesized that especially the incongruence between iFOV and eFOV would lead to sickness.

Orientation of Listing's plane after hypergravity in humans.

Adaptation to a novel gravitational state involves adaptation of vestibular mediated responses, in particular those mediated by the otolith organs. The present paper investigates whether the orientation of Listing's plane, which is under control of otolith signals, is affected by sustained exposure to hypergravity. Subjects were exposed to four G-loads differing in duration (45 or 90 min) and magnitude (2 or 3G).

Sickness induced by head movements after different centrifugal Gx-loads and durations.

It has been found that sustained centrifugation on Earth may evoke sickness symptoms that are similar to those of the Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS). As in SAS, incidence of this 'Sickness Induced by Centrifugation' (SIC) is about 50% and the symptoms are particularly evoked by head movements. By systematically varying the G-load and duration of centrifugation, the current study investigated the characteristics of the gravitational stimulus that is required for SIC to occur.

Velocity storage activity is affected after sustained centrifugation: a relationship with spatial disorientation.

Prolonged exposure to hypergravity in a human centrifuge can lead to post-rotary spatial disorientation and motion sickness. These symptoms are mainly provoked by tilting head movements and resemble the Space Adaptation Syndrome. We hypothesized that the occurrence of these post-rotary effects might be related to changes in the velocity storage (VS) mechanism, which is suggested to play an important role in spatial orientation.

A tactile cockpit instrument supports the control of self-motion during spatial disorientation.

Objective: We investigated the effectiveness of a tactile torso display as a countermeasure to spatial disorientation (SD) and compared inside-out and outside-in codings.

Background: SD is a serious threat to military as well as civilian pilots and aircraft. Considerable effort has been put into SD countermeasures such as training programs and advanced cockpit displays.