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Spinning in itself is not the root cause of motion sickness. What really cause motion sickness is the confusion of our mind: when what we see do not match up with our sense of direction located in our ears.
There is a sensor in our ears that detect motion and direction we are heading. As long as we can anticipate the direction that we are heading, we will never get motion sickness. That's why in a long bus journey with lots of turning, most passengers will get motion sickness... except for the driver. For the driver control the direction and is most able to anticipate the direction he is turning.
Worse when passengers are trying to read something on the bus. This is because when we try to read, our focus is on a non-moving reading material. Yet our mind is sensing that our bodies are in motion. The mismatch will almost always cause motion sickness.
The opposite (of no physical motion) will cause motion sickness as well. When we are playing 3D games in the first person perspective while sitting in a fixed position, our vision see movement, yet our mind is not sensing any movement from our bodies. The mismatch will almost always cause motion sickness as well.
Lastly, it was found that young children can adapt to the mismatch far better than adults do. That is why children enjoy spinning while adult hated it.
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Originally posted by soleachip:
I remember my folks had to feed me with motion sickness pills whenever we went on cruise or flights.
Strange thing was, after I grew up, sleeping in boats, ships and long distance road travel or flights don't cause me nauseousness anymore.
Your ear has become less sensitive.
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Originally posted by rlsh07:
ur alright,
Dizziness, vertigo, and motion sickness all relate to the sense of balance and equilibrium. Researchers in space and aeronautical medicine call this sense spatial orientation, because it tells the brain where the body is "in space:" what direction it is pointing, what direction it is moving, and if it is turning or standing still. Your sense of balance is maintained by a complex interaction of the following parts of the nervous system:
- The inner ears (also called the labyrinth), which monitor the directions of motion, such as turning, or forward-backward, side-to-side, and up-and-down motions.
- The eyes, which monitor where the body is in space (i.e. upside down, rightside up, etc.) and also directions of motion.
- The skin pressure receptors such as in the joints and spine, which tell what part of the body is down and touching the ground.
- The muscle and joint sensory receptors, which tell what parts of the body are moving.
- The central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), which processes all the bits of information from the four other systems to make some coordinated sense out of it all
The symptoms of motion sickness and dizziness appear when the central nervous system receives conflicting messages from the other four systems.
For example, suppose you are riding through a storm, and your airplane is being tossed about by air turbulence. But your eyes do not detect all this motion because all you see is the inside of the airplane. Then your brain receives messages that do not match with each other. You might become "air sick."
Or suppose you are sitting in the back seat of a moving car reading a book. Your inner ears and skin receptors will detect the motion of your travel, but your eyes see only the pages of your book. You could become "car sick."
Or, to use a true medical condition as an example, suppose you suffer inner ear damage on only one side from a head injury or an infection. The damaged inner ear does not send the same signals as the healthy ear. This gives conflicting signals to the brain about the sensation of rotation, and you could suffer a sense of spinning, vertigo, and nausea.
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