Charles S. Mirabile

Motion sickness: an index of sensory conflict relating to behavior.

Diverse measures of behavior are examined in a student and large patient sample for the purpose of supporting the concept that conflict in sensory mechanisms may contribute to diminished or impaired function. Evidence supports the contention that two patterns of orientation may exist at the extremes of motion sickness susceptibility and that individuals showing transitional patterns of organization may be vulnerable to different kinds of central nervous system disorganization. The authors believe that a consideration of sensory function as it relates to patterns of behavior may contribute to an expansion in the medical model of mental illness.

Susceptibility to motion sickness and ego closeness, ego distance as measured by the autokinetic response tendency.

This paper reports results from one phase in an ongoing study of the relationship between vestibular function and various aspects of personality, cognitive style and symptom formation in mental illness. In the experiment reported here a measure of autokinesis was shown to relate to motion sickness experience as judged by actual stimulation in a rotating chair. Low and intermediate sensitive subjects showed less autokinesis than the most motion sick individuals (two-way analysis of variance F = 5.735, P = 0.006). Males in this sample showed a significantly greater autokinetic tendency than females (two-way analysis of variance F = 6.995, P = 0.011).

A CLINICALLY USEFUL POLLING TECHNIQUE FOR ASSESSING SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MOTION SICKNESS

Susceptibility to motion sickness is a powerful index of individual differences and can be assessed in large populations without a test of performance. Although all questionnaire techniques introduce some error, we have demonstrated that a simple set of questions can lead to a five-point rating system with adequate validity and reliability. Our observations may be useful to any investigator interested in individual differences and have been extremely effective in sorting out behavioral trends in large samples of patients.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUAL ORIENTATION AND SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MOTION SICKNESS

24 male subjects were divided into 3 groups, on the basis of their susceptibility to motion sickness. All subjects were then required to set a luminous line in an apparently vertical position while viewing the line from a body position which was deviated 70° laterally from the upright. No visible frame of reference was available. A significant relationship between motion sickness susceptibility and errors in judging the vertical was discovered, the “intermediate” susceptibility group making the greatest errors. The role of the vestibular system in visual orientation and motion sickness is discussed. The result also indicates the potential value of using perceptual performance as a tool in the study of motion sickness and its correlates.

Separation of affective disorder into seasonal and nonseasonal types using motion sickness susceptibility as a marker.

A sample of 133 candidates for antidepressant or mood-stabilizing medication treatment, with acute onset or a new phase of illness between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, was gathered over a 3-year period from a private outpatient practice. All patients were diagnosed using DSM-III-R criteria, rated on a standard motion sickness (MS) questionnaire, and asked whether they had experienced cardinal symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). There was a positive relationship between greater MS and SAD in the entire patient sample. When a subsample of 23 patients was given a 2-week trial of phototherapy and rated for improvement, MS-susceptible patients responded better than MS-resistant patients.

Attention Deployment in Field Dependence and Autokinetic Movement

This paper reports an investigation of autokinetic response tendency based upon a conceptualization of the autokinetic phenomenon as being rooted in attention deployment. The hypothesis that field-dependence-independence and the autokinetic phenomenon require a similar type of attention deployment was tested in a multiple regression design. Results suggest that the autokinetic response requires the ability to attend selectively to relevant aspects of the external environment while ignoring the spatial context in which they are embedded. Attention to internal stimuli was found to be unrelated to the autokinetic response tendency.

Hand Preference and Spring-Summer vs Fall-Winter Seasonal Affective Disorder

Left- and right-handed patients with seasonal affective disorder were compared for seasonal patterns of depression and good spirits. Spring-summer depression and fall-winter good spirits were more evident among 9 left-handers. The reverse pattern was observed for the 9 right-handers.

ADAPTATION OF THE VISUAL VERTICAL DURING PROLONGED BODY TILT VARIES WITH SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MOTION SICKNESS

Judgments of the visual, vertical, made without a visual reference frame-work, from a tilted-body position, result in systematic constant errors (Aubert effects). Pitblado and Mirabile (1977) showed that these errors vary with motion-sickness susceptibility, persons of intermediate susceptibility showing the greatest error. Recent exploratory work suggested patterns of progressive intra-session change in Aubert effects which might further differentiate groups of differing susceptibility. The raw data from Pitblado and Mirabiles 1977 study were reanalyzed for possible progressive change. This new analysis showed significant progressive reductions in Aubert effects for groups originally high and low, but a nearly significant increase in the intermediate group. New implications concerning group differences in vestibular function are discussed.