Do visual stimuli induce postural instability and alter cardiac autonomic responses in healthy subjects based on their susceptibility to motion sickness?
High susceptibility to motion sickness is associated with visually induced postural instability and altered cardiac autonomic responses, specifically an increased LF:HF ratio.
In subjects with a low susceptibility to motion sickness as rated using a standardized questionnaire, there was no significant effect of visual stimulus on postural sway or HRV at any frequency of motion. Subjects with a high susceptibility to motion sickness showed significant postural instability induced by visual stimuli (p < 0.01). Visual stimuli presented at a frequency of 0.1 Hz significantly increased the low-frequency power (LF) of HRV, decreased the high-frequency power (HF) of HRV and increased the LF:HF ratio in these subjects (p < 0.05).
Yokota et al. (Sat,) studied this question.