Long-term study of simulator sickness: Differences in psychophysiological responses due to individual sensitivity

The purpose of the present study was to clear the differences of psychophysiological responses due to individual sensitivity of simulator sickness. The present experiment tried to investigate the simulator sickness objectively by observing the change of the simulator sickness for the different level of sickness groups (sick and non-sick group). The subjective evaluations using Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and physiological responses were measured every five minutes when they were driving as 60km/h in the driving graphic simulator. Response level of the subjective evaluation for all subjects on the simulator sickness was linearly increased with time for every item, and the response level of sick group was bigger than that of non-sick group. When the analysis on central nervous system was done separately on the sick and the non-sick group, there was significant difference in the parameter θ/total at Fz and Cz. Although the analysis on autonomic nervous system for all subjects showed the increased activation of sympathetic nervous system, there was no significant difference between the sick and non-sick group. In summary, the parameters to distinguish between the sick and non-sick group were the change on θ/total and subjective evaluation using SSQ.