Citation

Wada T, Yoshida K. Ergonomics 2015; 59(8): 1050-1059.

Affiliation

a College of Information Science and Engineering , Ritsumeikan University , 1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu , Shiga 525-8577 , Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00140139.2015.1109713

PMID

26481809

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. Practitioner Summary: Little is known about the effect of head-tilt strategies on motion sickness. This study investigated the effects of head-tilt direction and eyes-open/closed conditions on motion sickness during slalom automobile driving. Passengers' active head tilt towards the centripetal direction and the eyes-open condition greatly reduce the severity of motion sickness.

Language: en