Susceptibility to motion sickness in fish: a parabolic aircraft flight study

Juvenile swordtail fish and larval cichlids were subjected to parabolic aircraft flights (PAFs) and individually observed. After the PAFs, inner ear otoliths and sensory epithelia were examined on the light microscopical level. Otolith asymmetry (differences in otolith size between the left and the right side) was especially pronounced in those fish, who exhibited a kinetotic behaviour (e.g., spinning movements) during microgravity. This speaks in favour of a theoretical concept according to which susceptibility to space motion sickness in humans may be based on asymmetric inner ear stones. The cell density of sensory epithelia was lower in kinetotic animals as compared to normally swimming fish. Thus, asymmetric otoliths can cause kinetosis in fish during PAFs, but susceptibility to kinetosis may also be based on an aberrative inner ear morphology.