Motion sickness - Acquisition and retention of adaptation effects compared in three motion environments

The acquisition and retention of adaptation effects in motion sickness was invetigated using a sudden-stop vestibulovisual interaction test for measuring susceptibility to motion sickness (Graybiel and Lackner, 1980). The test procedure included four successive assessments that provide not only an index of susceptibility to motion sickness but also the rates of acquisition and decay of adaptation effects. The 14 subjects who had participated in this test had previously served as subjects in parabolic flight experiments and seven of them had also taken part in the assessment of antimotion-sickness remedies in a slow rotation room. A study was conducted to determine whether these subjects' rates of acquisition and decay of adaptation to stressful motion represent consistent general features of their response across motion environments. It is found that an individual's rates of acquiring and losing adaptation are quite consistent in very different situations. In addition, the pattern of results indicate modifications of the sudden-stop vestibulovisual test that should increase its effectiveness as a motion-sickness screening procedure, both for orbital flight and for terrestrial conditions.