The mystery of motion sickness - Rose Eveleth

Can you read in the car?

If so, consider yourself pretty lucky.

For one-third of the population,

looking at a book while moving along in a car

or a boat or train or plane

quickly makes them sick to their stomach.

But why do we get motion sickness in the first place?

Well, believe it or not, scientists aren't exactly sure.

The most common theory has to do

with mismatched sensory signals.

When you travel in a car, your body gets two different messages.

Your eyes are seeing the inside of a vehicle,

which doesn't seem to be moving.

Meanwhile, your ear is telling your brain you're accelerating.

Wait, your ear?

Your ear has another important function besides hearing.

In its innermost part lies a group of structures known as the vestibular system,

which gives us our sense of balance and movement.

Inside there are three semicircular tubules

that can sense rotation, one for each dimension of space.

And there are also two hair-lined sacks filled with fluid.

When you move, the fluid shifts and tickles the hairs,

telling your brain if you're moving horizontally or vertically.

All this tells your body which direction you're moving in,

how much you've accelerated, even at what angle.

In a car,

your vestibular system correctly senses your movement,

but your eyes don't see it, especially when glued to a book.

The opposite can happen.

You're at the movies, and the camera makes a sweeping move.

This time, your eyes think you're moving

while your ear knows you're sitting still.

But why does this conflicting information make us feel so terrible?

Scientists aren't sure,

but they think there's an evolutionary explanation.

Fast moving vehicles and video recordings

have only existed in the last couple of centuries,

a blink in evolutionary time.

For most of our history, there wasn't that much

that could cause this sensory mix-up,

except for poisons.

And because poisons are not the best thing for survival,

our bodies evolved a direct but unpleasant way

to get rid of what we ate that was causing the confusion.

It's a pretty reasonable theory, but it leaves things unexplained,

like why women are more affected by motion sickness than men,

or why passengers get more nauseous than drivers.

Another theory suggests that the cause is more about

the way some unfamiliar situations

make it harder to maintain our natural body posture.

Studies show that being immersed in water or just changing your stance

can greatly reduce the effects of motion sickness.

But we don't really know what's going on.

We know the more common remedies for car queasiness --

looking at the horizon, over-the-counter pills, chewing gum,

but none are totally reliable

nor can they handle intense motion sickness

and sometimes the stakes are far higher than just not being bored

during a long car ride.

At NASA, where astronauts are hurled into space at 17,000 miles per hour,

motion sickness is a serious problem.

In addition to researching the latest space-age technologies,

NASA also spends a lot of time

figuring out how to keep astronauts from vomiting up their space rations.

Like understanding the mysteries of sleep or curing the common cold,

motion sickness is one of those seemingly simple problems that,

despite amazing scientific progress, we still know very little about.

Perhaps one day the exact cause of motion sickness will be found,

and with it, a completely effective way to prevent it,

but that day is still on the horizon.