Effects of the peripheral vision on visually induced vertigo

Abstract

Visually induced vertigo, or motion sickness, is thought to be mainly influenced by motion perception, not by shape perception. We examined this point by comparing the effect of the foveal vision on the visually induced vertigo with that of the peripheral vision. We set up three kinds of display conditions: Foveal vision (F), peripheral vision (P), and foveal+peripheral vision (F+P). Videotaped motion was presented on the display. The results showed that a drifting eye movement was larger after the experiment than before the experiment in the (P) and the (F+P) conditions, but not in the (F) condition. In addition, the mirror drawing was improved only in the (F) condition. Subjective ratings for the vertigo were higher in both the (P) and the (F+P) conditions than in the (F) condition. These results indicate that some visual units concerning low spatial frequencies participate in the visually induced vertigo.