Head movements in low and high gravitoinertial force environments elicit motion sickness: implications for space motion sickness

Abstract

Astronauts report that head movements in flight tend to bring on symptoms of space motion sickness (SMS). We evaluated how head movements in pitch, yaw, and roll--made both with normal vision and eyes-occluded--affect susceptibility to motion sickness in the zero G phase of parabolic flight maneuvers. The findings are clearcut: pitch head movements are most provocative, yaw least provocative, and roll intermediate. Susceptibility is greater with normal vision than with eyes occluded. The same susceptibility pattern emerged for head movements in the 1.8-2.0 G phase of parabolic flight. These experiments suggest that SMS is not a unique nosological entity but, rather, is the consequence of exposure to nonterrestrial force levels. Head movements during departures in either direction from 1 G elicit symptoms. This implies that, rather than speaking of "space motion sickness," it would be more appropriate to think in terms of "nonterrestrial motion sickness."