Nuancing the relationship between motion sickness and postural stability

0141-9382/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.displa.2010.09.005 ⇑ Tel.: +31 346 356 371; fax: +31 346 353 977. E-mail address: [email protected] The most cited theory on motion sickness is the conflict theory by Reason and Brand (1975) [1], stating that motion sickness occurs due to a conflict between the senses and stored patterns of motion. In addition, there seems to be evidence for another theory stating that postural instability is a necessary and sufficient condition preceding motion sickness (Riccio and Stoffregen, 1991 [2]). A number of additional observations reviewed in this paper, however, are nuancing the relationship at issue, thus devaluating the latter theory. Moreover, a central mechanism as assumed before (Bos and Bles, 2002 [20]), driving both our posture and motion sickness symptoms, may explain why and when postural instability is correlated with sickness, and when it is not. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.