Visually Induced Motion Sickness during Single and Dual Axis Motion

The majority of studies into visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) either use complex motion scenarios or are limited to single-axis motion. This study compared VIMS during singleand dual-axis motion. Twelve participants were exposed to (i) oscillating roll motion, (ii) linear motion in the anterior-posterior axis, and (iii) spiral motion, i.e. the summed direction of both of these flow vectors. Increased sensory conflict during exposure to spiral motion was hypothesised to increase the level of motion sickness compared with exposure to its constituent motion patterns in isolation. Unexpectedly, spiral motion was not found to be more nauseogenic than either of the two single-axis motion patterns and this was consistent across participants. This finding argues against the magnitude of VIMS being determined by simple summation of the provocative stimuli.