The effect of sleep on the adaptation to the cross-coupled stimulus during artificial gravity

Head turns performed out of the plane of rotation of an artificial gravity (AG) centrifuge during short radius centrifugation (SRC) result in a cross coupled stimulus (CCS) to the vestibular system. This stimulus, when experienced repetitively by an untrained subject, often leads to motion sickness, inappropriate compensatory eye movements, and a perceived illusory tumbling sensation. Previous studies have shown that subjects can be adapted to the CCS. We investigated the effect of sleep on the rate of adaptation to the CCS over multiple exposure sessions. Subjects performed a sequence of right-quadrant yaw head turns while lying supine on a centrifuge rotating at 23rpm in the clockwise direction. The protocol consisted of 42 spinning head turns per session and a total of three sessions for each subject, over a two-day period. Sessions were performed either in the early morning or late evening with an approximately equal separation time of 10-12 hours between consecutive sessions. Subjects were divided into two experimental groups: group A attended morning-evening-morning sessions and group B attended evening-morning-evening sessions. A total of 33 subjects participated in the experiment, 22 of which provided complete and consistent data sets for the entire three-session protocol. Subjective reports of the tumbling intensity, tumbling duration, and motion sickness were recorded. Eye movement data was also recorded.

Department dc:contributor.department

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

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Mateus, Jaime (Pereira de Mateus Silva)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Laurence 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/1721.1/49561

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49561