Inhibition-related N2 and P3: Indicators of visually induced motion sickness (VIMS)

Visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) leads to psychophysiological discomfort and has an adverse effect on executive function. Response inhibition, which can inhibit inappropriate behavior to adapt to changing environments, is an important aspect of executive function. The present study investigated the changes in response inhibition following VIMS using event-related potentials (ERPs). In a two-choice oddball task, ERPs were recorded at baseline (pretest) and after a 40-min virtual reality (VR) training session (posttest). The results showed a larger deviant-N2 amplitude, smaller deviant-P3 amplitude and delayed deviant-P3 latency after the VR training. Our findings suggest that VIMS is characterized in part by impaired response inhibition and that inhibition-related N2 and P3 can be used as electrophysiological indices of response inhibition in the assessment of VIMS. •An ERP method is used to assess VIMS.•VIMS is associated with impaired response inhibition.•VIMS is accompanied by inhibition-related enhanced N2 amplitude, reduced P3 amplitude and delayed P3 latency.•N2 and P3 can be used as indicators for VIMS assessment.