In the late 19th century, some thrill-seekers were thrilled with so-called haunted swing rides. This looked like an ordinary room complete with tables, chairs and, in he one case, a piano, but there was a trick. Several chairs on swings hung from an iron beam across the center of the room. Gondola in the shape of a pirate ship Seen at modern carnivals. After rocking the seat back and forth as expected, an attendant stops the rocking and rotates the entire room. It was around riders (the furniture was all bolted to the floor). Part of the crowd was delighted. I wanted to throw up the rest.
As A visitor to the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco in 1894 “A lot of people actually got sick from that illusion. I’ve met several gentlemen who said they were so dizzy and nauseous that they could barely get out of their buildings.”
Motion sickness is a disease caused solely by technology. It can occur when you feel rested in a moving vehicle and can cause car, sea, or air sickness, but can also be caused by entertainment or optical equipment. The ghostly swing may have caused what today’s experts call visually-induced motion sickness. Vimssensations you may experience while wearing a VR headset or sitting in the front row to watch Avatar Or another 3D movie. Both conditions can have equally unpleasant and upsetting effects.
Symptoms and causes of motion sickness
The two most prominent effects of motion sickness are nausea and vomiting. Nausea usually comes first, but one may not be accompanied by the other, and some people with motion sickness may vomit without warning. Symptoms may also include flushing (no actual temperature rise), dizziness, disorientation, headache, loss of appetite, profuse drooling, and cold sweats.
In general, there are two main ideas about how the disease develops.Attitude Instability Theory” and “Sensory Conflict Theory”. The first is that when you lose control of your posture, like being tossed by a ship tossed by waves, you become ill. The second, and often cited in medical research, is the explanation that we get sick because there is a mismatch between our sensory systems and our brain’s blueprint for how things should be. The haunted Blanco is a “classic example of sensory conflict,” he said. John GoldingHe is Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Westminster, London, and has been researching motion sickness since the late 1980s.
As our bodies move through different spaces, our brains store patterns of how it should feel. For example, when we twist our heads, our eyes give us visual cues, but another system is at work. Our muscles, joints and vestibular system also record movements. The sensory network responsible for maintaining balance and orientation includes the brainstem and inner ear.
[Related: How to fight motion sickness while gaming]
There is one important reason for this. He says that our brains are like “archives” that allow us to “retrieve and compare” what we are currently experiencing with our past perceptions. Belang KeshavalzHe is a senior researcher at the University Health Network’s KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute in Canada, researching virtual reality and motion sickness. If our bodily sensations are aligned with each other, if our eyes and vestibular systems are aligned, and if our mental expectations follow suit, then great. Even if it’s a little off, it’s probably okay. But when there is a big difference in how they all sync, the discomfort starts. Surprisingly, the physical intensity of exercise does not appear to affect the development of this disease. “Horses don’t get sick no matter how hard they hoot,” Golding says. “If you do more gentle movements, you can get pretty sick.”
If we get nauseous so easily, is there an evolutionary explanation? It’s not clear for sure, but some experts have proposed a “toxin theory” that “what we call motion sickness is simply the abnormal triggering of a very ancient defensive reflex,” Golding explains. In other words, our dizzying brain thinks we’re being poisoned and causes us to vomit to expel the toxins.
Some people are more prone to motion sickness than others. According to Golding’s research, people experiencing migraines You are more likely to experience illness. There may be clues buried in our genetic material, but the research is still in its early stages. In one of the few DNA studies conducted by the genomics company 23andMe, At least 35 different genetic variants It has something to do with car sickness. Golding likens the finding to the height bell curve seen across the human population. It is not a single gene that is responsible for our height growth, but thousands of genes.
Age and biological sex can also play a role. Babies under the age of one year rarely get motion sickness, but the incidence peaks around her eight years of age and then declines as she reaches adulthood. For VIMS it may be different. over 65 years old For example, driving simulators are more likely to make you feel sick. in the meantime, some research Women are more likely to experience motion sickness than men. But Keshabars, who is also an adjunct professor of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University, said his study and other experiments consistently failed to find gender differences.
Prevention and treatment of motion sickness
The best way to deal with motion sickness is to to avoid causingWhether seasickness means avoiding boat rides or airsickness means avoiding helicopter tours. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends that passengers stay hydrated, eat frequent snacks, avoid smoking, limit alcohol and caffeine, sit in front of the car or bus, choose a window seat, and lie down or close their eyes if possible during the journey.
[Related: Does ginger ale work for motion sickness?]
As a more general strategy, it helps to anticipate changes in movement. Being in control of the vehicle reduces the chance of motion sickness. For example, drivers are less likely to get motion sickness than their passengers. Or just focus on getting your bearings. “Overall, you’ll get better results if you have a steady horizon view,” Golding says. (On the other hand, reading a book or scrolling on a mobile phone can exacerbate the situation, as your eyes are drawn to stationary objects that don’t indicate movement.) Finally, some techniques can eliminate the source of the disease. A haunted swinger wrote in 1895, “The moment I closed my eyes, the sensation vanished instantly.”
Symptoms of motion sickness can be treated with drugs such as diphenhydramine (sold under the trade name Benadryl), dimenhydrinate (dramine), and scopolamine, but these can also cause unwanted drowsiness. Golding’s behavioral study also found that controlling breathing reduced motion sickness when “focused on keeping your breathing very regular.”that is half the effect of medicineHowever, there are no side effects. And while there isn’t much evidence that acupressure bands actually prevent nausea, wearing them on your wrist may provide psychological relief, Golding added. “placebo effect It can be quite strong. ”
Mr. Keshavalz studied: Pleasant scent Or it turns out that sound can mitigate VIMS. listening to your favorite genre of music It can be useful in some situations. He is now investigating whether changes in body temperature have an effect, building on previous experiments. Increased exposure to airflow. “My hypothesis is that it cools the body and makes you feel better,” he says, counteracting the burning sensation. Overall, however, Keshavals expects motion sickness to remain a problem as we become more reliant on technology. With driverless cars, self-driving air taxis, and his shiny new VR product rolling in, there could be even more opportunities to lose our lunch.