Visually induced nausea causes characteristic changes in cerebral, autonomic and endocrine function in humans

Nausea is a highly individual and variable experience. The reasons for this variability are incompletely understood although psychophysiological factors have been proposed. Herein we describe objective psychophysiological changes induced by the subjective sensation of motion sickness. In comparison to subjects who did not develop nausea, nausea‐sensitive subjects demonstrated electrogastrographic and autonomic changes, which included an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity with a concomitant reduction in parasympathetic activity. Furthermore, differences were also evident in plasma ghrelin, and subcortical and cortical activity. These data have a number of important implications for future research examining the physiological mechanisms that underlie nausea: The physiological, hormonal and cortical patterns identified herein represent potential biomarkers of the physiological mechanisms of nausea. Reverse translation of the physiological factors identified may facilitate refinement of animal models used to investigate novel anti‐emetic agents and emetic liability of candidate drugs, increasing their validity and translation of finding to humans.