Adapting to artificial gravity (AG) at high rotational speeds.
Short-radius centrifugation offers a promising countermeasure to the adverse effects of prolonged weightlessness. Head movements made in a rotating environment elicit Coriolis effects, which seriously compromise sensory and motor processes. We have previously found that, contrary to common belief, participants can adapt to the Coriolis effects associated with single-quadrant yaw head turns during 23-rpm short-radius centrifugation, while maintaining their adaptation to stationary environments. Here, we focus on motion sickness and illusory motion, the most problematic subjective side effects. We present encouraging data that such context-specific adaptation generalizes immediately to a different centrifuge environment. It also generalizes quickly to Coriolis forces in the opposite direction. Implications for AG implementation are discussed.
Hecht
Heiko
H
Man-Vehicle Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. hecht@mit.edu
Brown
Erika L
EL
Young
Laurence R
LR