Motion sickness susceptibility in parabolic flight and velocity storage activity

In parabolic flight experiments, we have found post-rotary nystagmus to be differentially suppressed in free fall (OG) and in a high gravitoinertial force (1.8G) background relative to 1G. In addition, the influence of postrotary head movements on nystagmus suppression was found to be contingent on G level. The nature of this pattern indicated a G-dependency of the velocity storage and dumping mechanisms. Here, we have rank-correlated susceptibility to motion sickness during head movements in OG and 1.8G with the following: a) the decay time constant of the slow phase velocity of post-rotary nystagmus under 1G, no head movement, baseline conditions, b) the extent of time constant reduction elicited in OG and 1.8G; c) the extent of time constant reduction elicited by head tilts in 1G; and d) changes in the extent of time constant reduction in OG and 1.8G over repeated tests. Susceptibility was significantly correlated with the extent to which a head movement reduced the time constant in 1G, was weakly correlated with the baseline time constant, but was not correlated with the extent of reduction in OG or 1.8G. This pattern suggests a link between mechanisms evoking symptoms of space motion sickness and the mechanisms of velocity storage and dumping. Experimental means of evaluating this link are described.