THE EFFECT OF AUTOGENIC TRAINING AND BIOFEEDBACK ON MOTION SICKNESS TOLERANCE

Background: Motion sickness is characterized by symptoms of vomiting, drowsiness, fatigue and idiosyncratic changes in autonomic nervous sys tem (ANS) responses such as heart rate (HR) and skin temperature (ST). Previous studies found that symptoms of motion sickness ale controlla ble through self-regulation of ANS responses and the best method to te ach such control is autogenic-feedback (biofeedback) training. Recent experiments indicated that biofeedback training is ineffective in redu cing symptoms of motion sickness or in increasing tolerance to motion. Hypothesis: If biofeedback facilitates learning of ANS self-regulatio n then autogenic training with true feedback (TFB) should lead to bett er control over ANS responses and better motion tolerance than autogen ic training with false feedback (FFB). If there is a relationship betw een ANS self-regulation and coping with motion stress, a significant c orrelation should be found between amounts of control over ANS respons es and measures of motion tolerance and/or symptoms of motion sickness . Method: There were 3 groups of 6 subjects exposed for 6 weeks to wee kly sessions of Coriolis stimulation to induce motion sickness. Betwee n the first and second Coriolis sessions, subjects in the experimental groups received five episodes of autogenic training with either true (group TFB) or false (group FFB) feedback on their HR and ST. The cont rol group (CTL) received no treatment. Results: Subjects learned to co ntrol their HR and ST independent of whether they received true or fal se feedback. Learned control of ST and HR was not related to severity of motion sickness OF subject's ability to withstand Coriolis stimulat ion following treatment. Conclusions: A lack of significant correlatio n between these variables suggested that subjects were not able to app ly their skills of ANS self-regulation in the motion environment, and/ or such skills had little value in reducing symptoms of motion sickne ss or enhancing their ability to withstand rotations.