Transfer of habituation of motion sickness on change in body position between vertical and horizontal in a rotating environment.
Ashton Graybiel, Allen B. Thompson, F. Robert Deane, Alfred R. Fregly, James K. Colehour, Edward L Ricks · PubMed · 1968
This experiment was conducted i n a circular rofating mom 20 feet i n diameter.A unique feature was the provision for subjects tb walk and carry out their tasks while horizontal to gravity and at right angles to the axis of rotation.This ability to "walk along the wall" was made possible by the use of airbearing supports and custom-fitted articulated fiberglass molds.Efforts were made to ensure a degree o f comfort and level of activity in the "horizontal mode'' fairly comparnble t o that i n the "vertical mode.I' Four subjects participated i n two experimental trials involving habituation to the artificial force environment with the room rotating a t 4 rpm.One pair initially i n the horizontal mode was changed to the vertical mode i n the middle o f the perrotation period; i n the second experiment they began i n the vertical mode.The order was revene for the second pair.-F I N DINGS The changing sympbmatology with regard to motion sickness and postural equilibrium yielded information supporting the following statements.Susceptibility to motion sickness was similar i n the two orientational modes.Adaptation and habituation with respect to motion sickness in one orientation mode transferred to the other mode.Vestibular habituation in the horizontal mode ensuring freedom from symptoms o f motion sickness did not prevent ataxia on change to the vertical mode.In the Wart-vertical" mode habituation of motion sickness and postural disequilibrium was concurrent.The postrotatory peneveration of postural habituation to the rotating environment for as long as 36 b u n after the cessation of rotation, by restricting the subjects'activity, shed some light on the underlying homeostatic mechanism and indicated the experimenter's control over the dynamics o f this process.Within the limitations o f this experiment the findings indicate that habitvation o f motion sickness acquired i n the Slow Rotation Room with a subject parallel to the axis of rotation transfers to the orientation with subject a t right angles to the axis of rotation, the situation i n a rotating spacecraft.Our findings with respect to posiural disequilibrium indicate that simulation of spacecraft conditions i n the laboratory will, a t best, be poor but that elucidation o f the underlying mechanisms i s possible.