A parametric study of vestibular stimulation during centrifugation

Artificial Gravity (AG) provided by short-radius centrifugation is a promising countermeasure to the health problems associated with long duration human spaceflight. Head-turns performed during centrifugation, however, trigger a disturbing vestibular response that is only qualitatively understood. In order to design an efficient incremental adaptation procedure, the present study investigates the quantitative aspect of the vestibular side effects associated with AG, in particular, the relationship among crosscoupled stimulation, vestibular response, and adaptation. We tested 20 young adults with supine right-quadrant yaw head-turns performed in a dark environment during short-radius centrifugation. We studied the changes in vestibular response and adaptation to head-turns at different levels of cross-coupled stimulation. Nine combinations of head-turn angle (20°, 40° or 80°) with centrifugevelocity (12, 19 or 30 rpm) were tested over two consecutive days.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Pouly, Jeremie M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lawrence R. Young.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35291

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35291