BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Space Technol.
Sec. Space Exploration
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frspt.2025.1591817
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovation in Medical Space TechnologyView all 8 articles
The Psychomotor Vigilance Task for Assessing the Effects of Motion Sickness and Its Treatment
Provisionally accepted
- 1Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, United States
- 2Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States
- 3University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
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Background: Motion sickness drugs can improve symptoms but also cause drowsiness and reduce performance as side effects. We assessed whether the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) could provide an objective performance measure when motion sickness occurs and when drugs are used to prevent motion sickness.Methods: Data were from a previously published placebo-controlled study of chlorpheniramine (C) or chlorpheniramine plus ephedrine (CE). Participants did the PVT before drug/placebo, after drug/placebo, and after provocative motion in an off-vertical axis rotation chair. Eighteen individuals were randomized to receive one of six different orders of placebo, C, or CE. Data were analyzed using linear mixed effect models and repeated measures ANOVAs. Results: Mean and median response speeds were significantly reduced after chair rides for the placebo condition indicating the PVT was sensitive to motion sickness effects. C and CE both improved motion sickness symptoms but response speeds post motion with C were significantly worse than CE post ride measures. Conclusion: Ephedrine given with C negated the response speed effects from C alone and enabled subjects to sustain vigilance after drug treatment. The PVT offered an objective assessment of the effects of both motion sickness and effects of motion sickness treatment on attention and vigilance.
Keywords: Chlorpheniramine, Ephedrine, Motion Sickness, psychomotor vigilance task, Motion sickness drugs
Received: 11 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Geimer, Niemczak, Howard, Basner and Buckey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Christopher E Niemczak, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, United States
Jay C. Buckey, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, United States
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