Prediction of Susceptibility to Motion Sickness

Abstract

It is very appealing to try to predict susceptibility to motion sickness. Very many before me and no doubt many after, will pursue this goal. As you will see, my experiences have been very disappointing. I spent many years evaluating motion sickness history questionnaires and the seemingly predictive test of cupulometry---all to no avail. The more time I spend with people who suffer from chronic motion sickness, the more intrigued I am by their stories. These stories frequently seem illogical in terms of apparently widely different responses to stimuli that seem to be very similar. Suffice to say that in our laboratory we are frequently surprised by the responses of individuals. Those with a seemingly ``bad'' history often do better on our motion devices than others whose history seems less severe. We still have a lot to learn.