Motion Sickness and Postural Instability

after Prolonged Exposure to an Altered Gravitoinertial Force Environment (+2Gz)

Eric Martin(a) and Gary Riccio(b)
a. Systerns Research Laboratories, Inc., Dayton, OH, U.S.A.
b. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, U.S.A.

Publication Information: Book Title: Studies in Perception and Action II:
Posters Presented at the VIIth International Conference on Event
Perception and Action, August 8-13, 1993, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver BC, Canada. Contributors: S. Stavros Valenti - editor, John B.
Pittenger - editor, International Conference on Event Perception and Action
- orgname. Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication:
Hillsdale, NJ. Publication Year: 1993. Page Number: 366-369.

Space Motion Sickness (SMS) is an operationally significant problem during Space
Shuttle Missions. Symptoms of SMS include loss of appetite, malaise, lethargy, retching,
vomiting, a strong desire to keep the head still, and decrements in performance. The most
severe levels of SMS include multiple incidents of retching or vomiting and performance
decrements that last as long as 72 hours. NASA research has found that through 34
missions (STS-1 through STS-34) 67% of Shuttle crew members experienced some
degree of SMS during their first mission (Davis, Vanderploeg, Santy, Jennings, &
Stewart, 1988; Davis & Beck, 1990). 48% of these astronauts experienced "mild" SMS,
34% experienced "moderate" SMS, and 17% experienced "severe" levels of SMS. Since
STS-26 (Challenger) 26 crew members have been involved in subsequent missions.
Twelve of these 26 crew members (46%) showed symptoms of SMS. Fifteen crew
members reported no change in their symptomology, while nine indicated that their
symptoms were less severe. Two reported that symptoms were worse in subsequent
missions. Incidence of SMS among "experienced" crew members (those who flew
subsequent missions) was not statistically different from the incidence among crew
members on their first flight ( Davis & Beck, 1990).

Orbital flight is an environment in which the sum of gravitational and inertial forces is
zero and, consequently, one in which astronauts are in a state of persistent weightlessness
( Stoffregen & Riccio, 1988). There is general agreement that SMS occurs because of this
altered gravitoinertial environment, although the nature of the causal mechanisms
involved is a matter of some controversy ( Stoffregen & Riccio, 1991). Orbital flight is
not the only way to produce a persistence change in the force environment.
Gravitoinertial force can be enhanced by prolonged acceleration such as experienced
during curved trajectories of self motion. The centrifugal "force" due to the centripetal
acceleration of such a moving reference frame adds, vectorially, to the "force" of gravity.
This method of enhancing and controlling gravitoinertial magnitude can be achieved with
a human centrifuge. The magnitude of gravitoinertial force is generally scaled to gravity
and, thus, is referred to as "1G" (normal terrestrial conditions) or "2G" (twice the
magnitude of gravitational force), for example. More specifically, "+2Gz " refers to a
magnitude of force that is twice the magnitude of gravity in the body axis and directed
away from the head (using a body-axis reference frame).

There is intriguing evidence that prolonged exposure to enhanced Gz and subsequent
reintroduction to 1Gz produces symptoms similar to those associated with SMS (e.g.,
Bles & de Graaf, 1992; Ockels, Furrer, & Messerschmid, 1990). Bles and de Graaf (
1992) exposed 27 subjects to a +3G z load for 1.0 to 1.5 hours in a centrifuge--centripetal
acceleration was in the horizontal plane and the subject's body was supine with the
gravitoinertial force vector directed away from the head. From the theoretical perspective
of Riccio & Stoffregen (1991), it is noteworthy that Bles and de Graaf evaluated postural
stability before and immediately after exposure to +3Gz. Postural stability was disrupted
in some conditions after centrifugation, especially during head movement. Head
movements also tended to provoke motion sickness. Presumably for this reason "the
subjects therefore intuitively prevented head movements: they kept the head fixed to the
trunk and walked slowly like a robot" ( Bles & de Graaf, 1992, p. 277). These
investigators also noted that the provocativeness of head movements depended on
whether movement was in the pitch, roll, or yaw axis and on the direction of
gravitoinertial force with respect to the subject's body. "In general terms this means that
only those head movements are provocative that change the position of the head relative
to the direction of gravity" (p. 278). Such effects suggest that postural instability, itself, is
the cause of motion sickness and that adaptation may involve the use of abnormal, yet
robust, postural control strategies (Riccio & Stoffregen, 1991).

If postural instability is the proximal cause of motion sickness, similarity between
different forms of motion sickness should be based more directly on the characteristics of
postural instability than on the environmental transformations that lead to instability;
although it should be noted that these factors are not completely separable (see Riccio &
Stoffregen, 1991). Motion sickness and postural instability after prolonged exposure to
enhanced Gz may be similar, in some respects, to SMS and post-flight instability (Ockels
et al., 1990). Such effects of enhanced z are also interesting in their own right because
variations in the gravitoinertial environment would be experienced by the crew and
passengers of hypersonic vehicles such as the National Aerospace Plane (NASP).

Methods and results

Variations in G were produced with the "Dynamic Environment Simulator" (DES), a
human centrifuge with a 5.8 m radius, in the Armstrong Laboratory, WrightPatterson
AFB, Ohio. Postural stability was evaluated, in a variety of conditions, with a NeuroCom
Equitest System ( Nashner & McCollum, 1985). This report describes the results for
anterior-posterior (a-p) postural sway obtained for eleven subjects before and
immediately after 90 minutes in the DES at +2G z. Two of these subjects were the only
ones in the study that became motion sick as indicated by self-report scores on the
Graybiel Scale or through observation by the attending physician. Data on the location of
the center or pressure (Cp) at the support surface were sampled with the Equitest System
at a rate of 50 Hz over a period of 20 s. Power spectra for a-p sway (variations in Cp) in
the eyes-open condition are presented in Figure 1. Power spectra were very similar for all
subjects and conditions for which there was no evidence of motion sickness. Spectral
peaks indicating "pathological tremor," however, were obtained only for the two subjects
who became motion sick and only when they were motion sick (i.e., after centrifugation,
but not before). These results are consistent with the hypothesis of Riccio & Stoffregen
(1991) that instability in the postural system could be revealed by pathological tremor.
The results are also consistent with the hypothesis that postural instability should be
apparent, after exposure to provocative environments, only in subjects who become
motion sick (Hamilton, Kantor, & Magee, 1989; Riccio & Stoffregen, 1991).




Figure 1. Power spectra for a-p sway measured as movement in the center of pressure on
the support surface. Power spectra for all pre- and post-centrifuge conditions in which no
motion sickness was observed are contained within the lightly-shaded monotonic band.
This band provides a reference spectrum in both panels. The data for the two motion-sick
subjects are represented separately in (a) and (b). The darkly-shaded spectral peaks
represent pathological tremor in the post-centrifuge conditions for the two subjects who
were motion sick.

References

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