Aug 22, 2006 11:27 pm US/Central
U Of M Professor Studying Motion Sickness
by Darcy Pohland
(WCCO)
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The motion sickness simulator.
CBS
With the State Fair just two days away, ride lovers are anxiously awaiting the Midway rides. Others are anxious in a different way, as the mere
thought of whirling and twirling makes them sick.
One University of Minnesota professor is researching the topic of just what causes motion sickness and whether or not it can be prevented.
The movement of state fair rides is a lot different than the slow pace of U of M kinesiology professor Tom Stoffregen's test box. But to those who have motion sickness, the results are exactly the same.
"We have people standing here looking at this for 10 minutes and they become very motion sick," said Stoffregen. "When you stand up normally, or sit up, you feel stationary but you're not, because you're always in a body sway."
Stoffregen tracks the motions of test subjects by standing them in a space which imitates motion, giving them the sense that their surroundings are shifting around them.
"Like I'm on a rocking on a boat, gently," said test subject Drew Swain, who claimed he felt fine at the start of his test before admitting to feeling "slightly ... slightly queasy."
"The people who are going to get sick, before they feel any sickness, they begin to sway about this much," said Stoffregen, spacing his palms nearly a foot apart.
It's not just trains, planes, automobiles and carnival rides which cause motion sickness, now video games do too. The more realistic the game and the more players are involved, the more they move like they're in a car.
"When you have a mismatch between what the vehicle is doing and your body is doing that's when you become unstable," said Stoffregen. "That's when you become motion sick."
Researchers still don't know exactly what causes motion sickness but Professor Stoffregen says it's not an inner ear problem.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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