Objective and subjective responses to motion sickness: the group and the individual

Irmak, Tuğrul; Pool, Daan M.; Happee, Riender · 2020 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1007/s00221-020-05986-6

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Summary

This study investigates the temporal evolution of motion sickness, focusing on the impact of visual conditions, individual response repeatability, and the correlation between subjective symptoms and objective physiological measures. Motivated by the need for accurate motion sickness modeling in automated vehicles, where passengers may lack external visual cues, the research addresses how internal versus external vision affects sickness severity and whether individual responses are deterministic and repeatable. The researchers conducted two experiments using a passenger vehicle performing slalom maneuvers that generated lateral accelerations of 0.4 g at 0.2 Hz. Experiment 1 compared subjective sickness ratings, recorded via the Motion Sickness Incidence Scale (MISC), between external vision (normal view) and internal vision (obscured windows). Experiment 2 assessed repeatability and hypersensitivity by exposing participants to two successive motion exposures with a rest period in between, repeated across three sessions. Objective data included head roll kinematics, galvanic skin response (GSR), and electrocardiography (ECG). An adapted version of Oman’s nausea model was used to quantify sickness development, incorporating parameters for initial sickness rise and hypersensitivity upon re-exposure. Results demonstrated that internal vision was significantly more sickening than external vision. Participants in the internal vision condition exhibited a higher mean MISC (4.2 vs. 2.3), a faster sickness rate (0.59 vs. 0.10 min⁻¹), and a higher dropout rate (66% vs. 33%). The adapted Oman model successfully captured sickness development with a mean error of 11.3%. Crucially, modeling accuracy improved by a factor of two when using an individual’s previous response history compared to group-based modeling, confirming high individual repeatability. Regarding physiological correlates, GSR showed a strong relationship with sickness, with tonic and phasic components increasing by 42.5% and 90% respectively at high MISC levels, though GSR also increased over time independent of sickness. Head roll did not vary significantly with sickness, and ECG showed only slight variations. The findings imply that visual viewing conditions are a critical factor in motion sickness severity during complex rotational motions. The study validates that individual motion sickness responses are highly repeatable and deterministic, supporting the use of personalized modeling approaches rather than population averages. This has significant implications for the design of automated vehicle systems, suggesting that route planning and suspension controls should account for individual susceptibility and visual constraints to mitigate sickness. Furthermore, while GSR is a viable objective indicator of sickness, its time-dependent drift limits its standalone utility without subjective calibration.

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Topics

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• passenger motion sickness comfort
• simulator sickness