Postural Control and Visually Induced Motion Sickness After Visual Motion Experience

Postural control is defined by a series of relationships between our central nervous system and our proprioceptive, visual and vestibular sensory systems which maintain the body’s balance and orientation to control its position in space. Any conflicts in our bodies’ sensorimotor strategies may cause postural instability to occur, such as vestibular overstimulation: a precursor of motion sickness causing postural instability. The present study seeks to dive into both the association between visual motion experience and mitigation of VIMS symptoms, as well as the impacts of visually induced motion sickness (VIMS), a subcategory of motion sickness, on postural instability. Individuals with video game or virtual reality experience may experience less severity of VIMS and have better recovery after a prolonged visual motion experience compared to those without video game/virtual reality (VG/VR) experience. Following the theory of postural instability, postural differences between individuals regardless of VG/VR experience will indicate differing levels of VIMS severity and postural instability during recovery. Predicted results suggested VG/VR experience to be one indicator of postural differences and incidence of VIMS, while postural control instead directly related to individual differences in postural control with severity of postural instability following VIMS experience varying between VG/VR experienced individuals. Mitigation of VIMS is crucial to those who experience VIMS recurrently. Understanding how postural control and stability may impact recovery from VIMS must be explored further to find solutions for reducing the severity of VIMS symptoms while experiencing a visual motion environment, as well as after.