title: [Individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness].
abstract: Several different theories exist about the origin of kinetosis and the space adaptation syndrome, with individual sensitivities differing significantly. One explanation involves the hypothesis of a different otolith mass between the right and left statolith organ and especially a difference in the utricles. A difference in mass results in a different sensitivity to acceleration. For this reason we measured interindividual variances in saccular and utricular otolith mass. Since the anatomy of the vestibular organ in vertebrates is based as similar principles, we selected fish (salmon and trout) as our study model to facilitation preparations. The maximum difference in mass in the saccule was 17% and was generally smaller in the utricle, although in individual cases was much higher. We assume that a misbalanced sensitivity of the statolith organs occurs but is totally compensated for by the vestibular system as long as physiological motion patterns take place. Decompensation leads to kinetosis under non-physiological motion patterns. When the vestibular system is better balanced and has an equally distributed otolith mass to both sides, the possibility for developing kinetosis or space adaptation syndrome is much less likely.
authors.affiliation: Universitäts-HNO-Klinik, Klinikum Benjamin Franklin der Freien Universität Berlin.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Helling
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hausmann
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Flöttmann
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Scherer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001699:Biometry; D007206:Individuality; D007699:Kinesthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009041:Motion Sickness / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010037:Otolithic Membrane / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012444:Saccule and Utricle / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012474:Salmon; D013045:Species Specificity; D014337:Trout