Book Description

The purpose of this experiment was to answer specific questions relating to the design of an adaptation schedule effective in protecting against motion sickness in a rotating environment. Ten men with normal vestibular function executed controlled head and body movements at each of ten 1-rpm step increase in the velocity of the Pensacola Slow Rotation Room. On the completion of every moment, subjects were required to indicate whether or not they had detected sensations of vestibular or somatosensory origin. At each velocity step, the movements were continued until each of 24 consecutive movements had elicited a negative response and the subject was judged to be symptom free. When this arbitrary adaptation criterion was reached, the angular velocity was increased by 1 rpm and the procedure repeated. On attaining the criterion at the terminal velocity (10 rpm), the rotation was stopped and the postrotatory phenomena were investigated using the same techniques. The principal finding was that the number of movements necessary to achieve the adaptation criterion was systematically related to the absolute level of angular velocity. Considerably more head and body movements were required to reach the same level of adaptation at faster speeds than at slower speeds, even though the size of the step increment remained constant. There was some evidence to indicate that the amount of stimulation to criterion depended upon the initial magnitude of sensation elicited by the increment. There were also wide individual differences in both the rate of adaptation and the minimum velocity necessary to evoke sensation. (Author).