Chinese hyper-susceptibility to vection-induced motion sickness.
Little is known about the factors that control individual differences in susceptible to motion sickness. A serendipitous observation in our laboratory that most Chinese subjects become motion sick prompted this study. We used a rotating optokinetic drum to provoke motion sickness and compared gastric responses and symptom reports of Chinese, European-American, and African-American subjects. There was no difference in the responses of European-American and African-American subjects; however, Chinese subjects showed significantly greater disturbances in gastric activity and reported significantly more severe symptoms. We suggest that this hyper-susceptibility presents a natural model for the study of physiological mechanisms of nausea and other symptoms of motion sickness.
Stern
R M
RM
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802.
Hu
S
S
LeBlanc
R
R
Koch
K L
KL
D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian; D044383:Black People; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D006801:Humans; D009041:Motion Sickness / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology*; D009325:Nausea / Q000209:etiology; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000209:etiology; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American