Effect of passengers' active head tilt and opening/closure of eyes on motion sickness in lateral acceleration environment of cars

TL;DR

This study investigates how active head tilting and eye conditions affect motion sickness severity in cars with lateral acceleration, finding that head tilting against centrifugal force and keeping eyes open reduce sickness.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how active head-tilt strategies and eye-open conditions can mitigate motion sickness in lateral acceleration environments.

Findings

Centripetal head tilt reduces motion sickness severity.

Eyes-open condition significantly lowers sickness ratings.

Active head-tilt against centrifugal force is beneficial.

Abstract

This study examined the effect of passengers' active head-tilt and eyes-open/closed conditions on the severity of motion sickness in the lateral acceleration environment of cars. In the centrifugal head-tilt condition, participants intentionally tilted their heads towards the centrifugal force, whereas in the centripetal head-tilt condition, the participants tilted their heads against the centrifugal acceleration. The eyes-open and eyes-closed cases were investigated for each head-tilt condition. In the experimental runs, the sickness rating in the centripetal head-tilt condition was significantly lower than that in the centrifugal head-tilt condition. Moreover, the sickness rating in the eyes-open condition was significantly lower than that in the eyes-closed condition. The results suggest that an active head-tilt motion against the centrifugal acceleration reduces the severity of motion sickness both in the eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions. They also demonstrate that the eyes-open condition significantly reduces the motion sickness even when the head-tilt strategy is used.