Estimating the sensorimotor components of cybersickness

The user base of the virtual reality (VR) medium is growing, and many of these users will experience cybersickness. Accounting for the vast interindividual variability in cybersickness forms a pivotal step in solving the issue. Most studies of cybersickness focus on a single factor (e.g., balance, sex, or vection), while other contributors are overlooked. Here, we characterize the complex relationship between cybersickness and several measures of sensorimotor processing. In a single session, we conducted a battery of tests of balance control, vection responses, and vestibular sensitivity to self-motion. Following this, we measured cybersickness after VR exposure. We constructed a principal components regression model using the measures of sensorimotor processing. The model significantly predicted 37% of the variability in cybersickness measures, with 16% of this variance being accounted for by a principal component that represented balance control measures. The strongest predictor was participants’ sway path length during vection, which was inversely related to cybersickness [r(28) = −0.53, P = 0.002] and uniquely accounted for 7.5% of the variance in cybersickness scores across participants. Vection strength reports and measures of vestibular sensitivity were not significant predictors of cybersickness. We discuss the possible role of sensory reweighting in cybersickness that is suggested by these results, and we identify other factors that may account for the remaining variance in cybersickness. The results reiterate that the relationship between balance control and cybersickness is anything but straightforward. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The advent of consumer virtual reality provides a pressing need for interventions that combat sickness in simulated environments (cybersickness). This research builds on multiple theories of cybersickness etiology to develop a predictive model that distinguishes between individuals who are/are not likely to experience cybersickness. In the future this approach can be adapted to provide virtual reality users with curated content recommendations based on more efficient measurements of sensorimotor processing.

[1]  T. Ketelaar,et al.  Are Evolutionary Explanations Unfalsifiable? Evolutionary Psychology and the Lakatosian Philosophy of Science , 2000 .

[2]  A. Delorme,et al.  Roles of retinal periphery and depth periphery in linear vection and visual control of standing in humans. , 1986, Canadian journal of psychology.

[3]  M. Treisman.  Motion sickness: an evolutionary hypothesis. , 1977, Science.

[4]  J. Błaszczyk.  Sway ratio - a new measure for quantifying postural stability. , 2008, Acta neurobiologiae experimentalis.

[5]  Alireza Mazloumi Gavgani,et al.  Profiling subjective symptoms and autonomic changes associated with cybersickness , 2017, Autonomic Neuroscience.

[6]  Kathleen E. Cullen,et al.  The neural encoding of self-generated and externally applied movement: implications for the perception of self-motion and spatial memory , 2014, Front. Integr. Neurosci..

[7]  S H Uijtdehaage,et al.  Asian hypersusceptibility to motion sickness. , 1996, Human heredity.

[8]  Nicholas Eriksson,et al.  Genetic variants associated with motion sickness point to roles for inner ear development, neurological processes and glucose homeostasis , 2015, Human molecular genetics.

[9]  J. Golding,et al.  Motion sickness susceptibility fluctuates through the menstrual cycle. , 2005, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[10]  M. Steinbach,et al.  Increased role of peripheral vision in self-induced motion in patients with age-related macular degeneration. , 2008, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[11]  Lori Ann Vallis,et al.  Can Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation Reduce Simulator Adaptation Syndrome , 2017 .

[12]  Gary E. Riccio,et al.  Visually Induced Motion Sickness in Virtual Environments , 1992, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[13]  Michael J Cevette,et al.  Oculo-vestibular recoupling using galvanic vestibular stimulation to mitigate simulator sickness. , 2012, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[14]  C. Oman,et al.  Motion sickness: a synthesis and evaluation of the sensory conflict theory. , 1990, Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology.

[15]  R L Kohl,et al.  Endocrine correlates of susceptibility to motion sickness. , 1985, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[16]  Stephen Palmisano,et al.  The Oscillating Potential Model of Visually Induced Vection , 2017, i-Perception.

[17]  Gary E. Riccio,et al.  An Ecological Critique of the Sensory Conflict Theory of Motion Sickness , 1991 .

[18]  Gianluca De Leo,et al.  Measuring Sense of Presence and User Characteristics to Predict Effective Training in an Online Simulated Virtual Environment , 2014, Simulation in healthcare : journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.

[19]  A. J. Benson,et al.  Thresholds for the perception of whole body angular movement about a vertical axis. , 1989, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[20]  B E Maki,et al.  Preferred placement of the feet during quiet stance: development of a standardized foot placement for balance testing. , 1997, Clinical biomechanics.

[21]  Laura L. Arns,et al.  The relationship among age and other factors on incidence of cybersickness in immersive environment users , 2006, SIGGRAPH Research Posters.

[22]  S. Watanabe,et al.  Body sway induced by depth linear vection in reference to central and peripheral visual field. , 2000, The Japanese journal of physiology.

[23]  S M Ebenholtz,et al.  The possible role of nystagmus in motion sickness: a hypothesis. , 1994, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[24]  S G Diamond,et al.  Prediction of space motion sickness susceptibility by disconjugate eye torsion in parabolic flight. , 1991, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[25]  T. Stoffregen,et al.  An ecological Theory of Motion Sickness and Postural Instability , 1991 .

[26]  P. Gatev,et al.  Feedforward ankle strategy of balance during quiet stance in adults , 1999, The Journal of physiology.

[27]  N. Troje,et al.  Influence of bone-conducted vibration on simulator sickness in virtual reality , 2018, PloS one.

[28]  C. Shawn Green,et al.  Visual 3D motion acuity predicts discomfort in 3D stereoscopic environments , 2016, Entertain. Comput..

[29]  Kay M. Stanney,et al.  Handbook of Virtual Environments - Design, Implementation, and Applications, Second Edition , 2014, Handbook of Virtual Environments, 2nd ed..

[30]  Robert S. Kennedy,et al.  Simulator Sickness Questionnaire: An enhanced method for quantifying simulator sickness. , 1993 .

[31]  Margaret D. Nolan,et al.  Vection and simulator sickness. , 1990, Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[32]  N. F. Dixon,et al.  The Detection of Auditory Visual Desynchrony , 1980, Perception.

[33]  Pedro Gamito,et al.  Presence, immersion and cybersickness assessment through a test anxiety virtual environment. , 2008 .

[34]  R W Baloh,et al.  Visual‐Vestibular Interaction during High‐Frequency, Active Head Movements in Pitch and Yaw a , 1992, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[35]  Juno Kim,et al.  Effects of gaze on vection from jittering, oscillating, and purely radial optic flow , 2009, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[36]  Ahmet Çakir,et al.  Handbook of virtual environments: design, implementation, and applications, second edition, edited by Kelly S. Hale and Kay M. Stanney, CRC Press, 2014 , 2015, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[37]  H. Kingma,et al.  Habituation to galvanic vestibular stimulation for analysis of susceptibility to carsickness , 2004, Acta oto-laryngologica.

[38]  Heiko Hecht,et al.  Brightness and contrast do not affect visually induced motion sickness in a passively-flown fixed-base flight simulator , 2016, Displays.

[39]  C. Darlot,et al.  Motion sickness susceptibility correlates with otolith‐ and canal–ocular reflexes , 1998, Neuroreport.

[40]  A. Graybiel,et al.  Experiment M131. Human vestibular function , 1973 .

[41]  Kihun Cho,et al.  Relationship between Postural Sway and Dynamic Balance in Stroke Patients , 2014, Journal of physical therapy science.

[42]  Jelte E. Bos,et al.  Motion in images is essential to cause motion sickness symptoms, but not to increase postural sway , 2015, Displays.

[43]  Michael D'Zmura,et al.  Cybersickness without the wobble: Experimental results speak against postural instability theory. , 2017, Applied ergonomics.

[44]  I. Howard,et al.  Visually-induced sickness in normal and bilaterally labyrinthine-defective subjects. , 1991, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[45]  M. Wallace,et al.  The construct of the multisensory temporal binding window and its dysregulation in developmental disabilities , 2014, Neuropsychologia.

[46]  Moira B. Flanagan,et al.  Motion Sickness and Postural Sway in Console Video Games , 2008, Hum. Factors.

[47]  Betty J. Mohler,et al.  Orthographic and perspective projection influences linear vection in large screen virtual environments , 2007, APGV.

[48]  Behrang Keshavarz,et al.  Validating an Efficient Method to Quantify Motion Sickness , 2011, Hum. Factors.

[49]  F. Horak.  Clinical measurement of postural control in adults. , 1987, Physical therapy.

[50]  B J Frost,et al.  The effect of visual-vestibular conflict on the latency of steady-state visually induced subjective rotation , 1981, Perception & psychophysics.

[51]  Betty J. Mohler,et al.  Adapting to Virtual Environments , 2014, Handbook of Virtual Environments, 2nd ed..

[52]  Catherine Gabaude,et al.  Alleviating Simulator Sickness with Galvanic Cutaneous Stimulation , 2015, Hum. Factors.

[53]  Stephen A. Palmisano,et al.  Vection and cybersickness generated by head-and-display motion in the Oculus Rift , 2017, Displays.

[54]  Bernhard E. Riecke,et al.  To move or not to move: can active control and user-driven motion cueing enhance self-motion perception ("vection") in virtual reality? , 2012, SAP.

[55]  Katsunori Matsuoka,et al.  Autonomic responses during motion sickness induced by virtual reality. , 2007, Auris, nasus, larynx.

[56]  D. Winter,et al.  Motor mechanisms of balance during quiet standing. , 2003, Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology.

[57]  Elisa Raffaella Ferrè,et al.  Cybersickness: a Multisensory Integration Perspective. , 2018, Multisensory research.

[58]  N. Prins.  The psi-marginal adaptive method: How to give nuisance parameters the attention they deserve (no more, no less). , 2013, Journal of vision.

[59]  Daniel J. Miller,et al.  Integration of vestibular and emetic gastrointestinal signals that produce nausea and vomiting: potential contributions to motion sickness , 2014, Experimental Brain Research.

[60]  C. Balaban,et al.  Identification of Neural Networks That Contribute to Motion Sickness through Principal Components Analysis of Fos Labeling Induced by Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation , 2014, PloS one.

[61]  J F Golding,et al.  Phasic skin conductance activity and motion sickness. , 1992, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[62]  Pierre Denise,et al.  Vestibulo-ocular reflex and motion sickness in figure skaters , 2008, European Journal of Applied Physiology.

[63]  Marcos Duarte,et al.  Revision of posturography based on force plate for balance evaluation. , 2010, Revista brasileira de fisioterapia (Sao Carlos (Sao Paulo, Brazil)).

[64]  Mark S. Dennison,et al.  Use of physiological signals to predict cybersickness , 2016, Displays.

[65]  Golding Jf,et al.  Phasic skin conductance activity and motion sickness. , 1992 .

[66]  Geoffrey Hall,et al.  Effects of ethnicity and gender on motion sickness susceptibility. , 2005, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[67]  Frederick Bonato,et al.  Space motion sickness and motion sickness: symptoms and etiology. , 2013, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[68]  Jelte E. Bos,et al.  Nuancing the relationship between motion sickness and postural stability , 2011, Displays.

[69]  C. Riach,et al.  Postural stability measures: what to measure and for how long. , 1996, Clinical biomechanics.

[70]  Philip A. Stephens,et al.  Information theory and hypothesis testing: a call for pluralism , 2005 .

[71]  Michael D'Zmura,et al.  Effects of unexpected visual motion on postural sway and motion sickness. , 2018, Applied ergonomics.

[72]  T. Eversmann,et al.  Increased secretion of growth hormone, prolactin, antidiuretic hormone, and cortisol induced by the stress of motion sickness. , 1978, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[73]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Visual Touch in Virtual Environments: An Exploratory Study of Presence, Multimodal Interfaces, and Cross-Modal Sensory Illusions , 2001, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[74]  I. Howard,et al.  Circularvection about earth-horizontal axes in bilateral labyrinthine-defective subjects. , 1989, Acta oto-laryngologica.

[75]  Ronald R. Mourant,et al.  Comparison of Simulator Sickness Using Static and Dynamic Walking Simulators , 2001 .

[76]  Nikolaus F. Troje,et al.  Vection Latency Is Reduced by Bone-Conducted Vibration and Noisy Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation , 2017 .

[77]  Kay M. Stanney,et al.  Duration and Exposure to Virtual Environments: Sickness Curves During and Across Sessions , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[78]  W. Chey,et al.  Role of plasma vasopressin as a mediator of nausea and gastric slow wave dysrhythmias in motion sickness. , 1997, The American journal of physiology.

[79]  J. Dichgans,et al.  Some methods and parameters of body sway quantification and their neurological applications , 2004, Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten.

[80]  Moira B. Flanagan,et al.  Sex differences in tolerance to visually-induced motion sickness. , 2005, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[81]  Yun Ling,et al.  The relationship between individual characteristics and experienced presence , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[82]  Heiko Hecht,et al.  Vection is the main contributor to motion sickness induced by visual yaw rotation: Implications for conflict and eye movement theories , 2017, PloS one.

[83]  J. F. Soechting,et al.  The role of vision in the control of posture during linear motion. , 1979, Progress in brain research.

[84]  Heinrich H. Bülthoff,et al.  Modeling direction discrimination thresholds for yaw rotations around an earth-vertical axis for arbitrary motion profiles , 2012, Experimental Brain Research.

[85]  J R Lackner,et al.  Variations in gravitoinertial force level affect the gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex: implications for the etiology of space motion sickness. , 1981, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[86]  P. Denise,et al.  Motion sickness occurrence does not correlate with nystagmus characteristics , 2000, Neuroscience Letters.

[87]  W. Massy.  Principal Components Regression in Exploratory Statistical Research , 1965 .

[88]  D. Winter,et al.  Stiffness control of balance in quiet standing. , 1998, Journal of neurophysiology.

[89]  T. Stoffregen,et al.  Postural instability precedes motion sickness , 1998, Brain Research Bulletin.

[90]  T.E. Prieto,et al.  Measures of postural steadiness: differences between healthy young and elderly adults , 1996, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[91]  Joseph J. LaViola,et al.  A discussion of cybersickness in virtual environments , 2000, SGCH.

[92]  Clare Regan,et al.  An investigation into nausea and other side-effects of head-coupled immersive virtual reality , 1995, Virtual Reality.

[93]  W. Bles,et al.  Motion sickness: only one provocative conflict? , 1998, Brain Research Bulletin.

[94]  B. Yates,et al.  Physiological basis and pharmacology of motion sickness: an update , 1998, Brain Research Bulletin.

[95]  Young Youn Kim,et al.  Characteristic changes in the physiological components of cybersickness. , 2005, Psychophysiology.

[96]  M. Ali Mirzaei,et al.  Features of the Postural Sway Signal as Indicators to Estimate and Predict Visually Induced Motion Sickness in Virtual Reality , 2017, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[97]  H. Hecht,et al.  Adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex, subjective tilt, and motion sickness to head movements during short-radius centrifugation. , 2003, Journal of vestibular research : equilibrium & orientation.

[98]  Fred W. Mast,et al.  Vestibular thresholds for yaw rotation about an earth-vertical axis as a function of frequency , 2008, Experimental Brain Research.

[99]  R. Peterka.  Sensorimotor integration in human postural control. , 2002, Journal of neurophysiology.

[100]  Stephen Palmisano,et al.  Spontaneous postural sway predicts the strength of smooth vection , 2014, Experimental Brain Research.

[101]  K. Money,et al.  Another function of the inner ear: facilitation of the emetic response to poisons. , 1983, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[102]  Marcos Duarte,et al.  Revisão sobre posturografia baseada em plataforma de força para avaliação do equilíbrio , 2010 .

[103]  J. Golding.  Motion sickness susceptibility questionnaire revised and its relationship to other forms of sickness , 1998, Brain Research Bulletin.

[104]  Jelte E. Bos,et al.  A theory on visually induced motion sickness , 2008, Displays.

[105]  W. Becker,et al.  Optokinetic circular vection: a test of visual–vestibular conflict models of vection nascensy , 2015, Experimental Brain Research.

[106]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Will Simulation Sickness Slow Down the Diffusion of Virtual Environment Technology? , 1992, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[107]  P. Weisskopf,et al.  Vestibular Testing Abnormalities in Individuals with Motion Sickness , 2003, Otology & neurotology : official publication of the American Otological Society, American Neurotology Society [and] European Academy of Otology and Neurotology.

[108]  Stephen Palmisano,et al.  Predicting vection and visually induced motion sickness based on spontaneous postural activity , 2017, Experimental Brain Research.

[109]  W. Johnson,et al.  Importance of the vestibular system in visually induced nausea and self-vection. , 1999, Journal of vestibular research : equilibrium & orientation.

[110]  Mark H. Draper,et al.  The adaptive effects of virtual interfaces: vestibulo-ocular reflex and simulator sickness , 1998 .

[111]  Jennifer L. Campos,et al.  Vection and visually induced motion sickness: how are they related? , 2015, Front. Psychol..

[112]  J. Galen Buckwalter,et al.  Sex differences in mental rotation and spatial rotation in a virtual environment , 2004, Neuropsychologia.

[113]  J. Dichgans,et al.  Visual-Vestibular Interaction: Effects on Self-Motion Perception and Postural Control , 1978 .

[114]  Kathleen E. Cullen,et al.  Brainstem processing of vestibular sensory exafference: implications for motion sickness etiology , 2014, Experimental Brain Research.

[115]  Stephen Palmisano,et al.  The Role of Perceived Speed in Vection: Does Perceived Speed Modulate the Jitter and Oscillation Advantages? , 2014, PloS one.

[116]  Jerome Carriot,et al.  Learning to expect the unexpected: rapid updating in primate cerebellum during voluntary self-motion , 2015, Nature Neuroscience.

[117]  C. Tyler,et al.  Bayesian adaptive estimation of psychometric slope and threshold , 1999, Vision Research.