Study of Relationship between Electroencephalogram Dynamics and Motion Sickness of Drivers in a Virtual Reality Dynamic Driving Environment

The nausea-related Electroencephalogram (EEG) dynamics corresponding to motion sickness inclining tasks is studied in this thesis with the virtual-reality based dynamic driving environment. The VR-based dynamic driving environment provides the advantages of safety, low cost, and the realistic stimuli to the subjects. The Motion Sickness Questionnaire (MSQ) is designed and the physiological responses (including Electrocardiogram (EKG), Electrogastrography (EGG) and galvanic skin response) are recorded to assess the motion sickness. The EEG changes correlated to motion sickness will not only refer to the MSQ score, but the objective indices should also be involved for systematic evaluation. It was found from the result that the EGG signal is an efficient index, which is suitable for most of the subjects with excellent response time. The independent component analysis (ICA) combined with power spectral analysis is applied to investigate the EEG dynamics during the motion sickness. The experiment results demonstrated that the subjects have the power-suppressions in some specific frequency bands (10 Hz and/or 20 Hz) in the parietal lobe region. The nausea-related region and the nausea-influenced power spectrum suppression can be successfully obtained with our experimental results.