Visual Occlusion Decreases Motion Sickness in a Flight Simulator

Abstract

Sensory conflict theories of motion sickness (MS) assert that symptoms may result when incoming sensory inputs (e.g., visual and vestibular) contradict each other. Logic suggests that attenuating input from one sense may reduce conflict and hence lessen MS symptoms. In the current study, it was hypothesized that attenuating visual input by blocking light entering the eye would reduce MS symptoms in a motion provocative environment. Participants sat inside an aircraft cockpit mounted onto a motion platform that simultaneously pitched, rolled, and heaved in two conditions. In the occluded condition, participants wore “blackout” goggles and closed their eyes to block light. In the control condition, participants opened their eyes and had full view of the cockpit’s interior. Participants completed separate Simulator Sickness Questionnaires before and after each condition. The posttreatment total Simulator Sickness Questionnaires and subscores for nausea, oculomotor, and disorientation in the control condition were significantly higher than those in the occluded condition. These results suggest that under some conditions attenuating visual input may delay the onset of MS or weaken the severity of symptoms. Eliminating visual input may reduce visual/nonvisual sensory conflict by weakening the influence of the visual channel, which is consistent with the sensory conflict theory of MS.