Postural precursors of motion sickness in head-mounted displays: drivers and passengers, women and men

Motion sickness is preceded by distinctive patterns of postural activity that differ between the sexes. We asked whether such postural precursors of motion sickness might exist before participants were exposed to a virtual driving game presented via a head-mounted display. Men and women either controlled a virtual vehicle (drivers), or viewed a recording of virtual vehicle motion (passengers). Before exposure to the game, we recorded standing body sway while participants performed simple visual tasks (staring at a blank page vs. counting target letters in a block of text). Following game exposure, participants were classified into Well and Sick groups. In a statistically significant interaction, the multifractality of body sway varied as a function of sex, vehicle control, and motion sickness status. The results confirm that postural precursors of motion sickness differ between the sexes, and extend these to the control of virtual vehicles in head-mounted displays. Practitioner Summary: We asked whether postural sway might predict motion sickness during exposure to a driving game via a head-mounted display. Participants drove a virtual car (drivers), or watched recorded car motion (passengers). Beforehand, we measured standing body sway. Postural precursors of motion sickness differed between the sexes and drivers and passengers. Abbreviations: M: meters; SD: standard deviation; kg: kilograms; COP: centre of pressure; AP: anterior-posterior; ML: mediolateral; cm: centimeters; s: seconds; min: minutes; MF: DFA: multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis; DFA: detrended fluctuation analysis; ANOVA: analysis of variance; CI: confidence interval; Hz: hertz; SE: standard error of the mean