But you do have a nervous system. And so does a computer.
While many of us watch 3-D entertainment in awe, others are compelled to look away. There just so happens to be a group of unlucky moviegoers who find that watching hyper 3-D images whiz by while sitting in the relatively still environment of a movie theater causes dizziness nausea, and other ill effects.
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), experimental psychologists Frederick Bonato and Andrea Bubka of Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City, N.J., study this phenomenon, known as ‘cybersickness.’
“Cybersickness is a form of motion sickness that occurs in virtual reality environments,” says Bonato. “We have 3-D video games and 3-D movies, and now we have 3-D television. Viewing stimuli in 3-D may lead to some motion sickness symptoms to some degree.”
To understand cybersickness, you’ll need a quick lesson on motion sickness. “When we move around in the natural way, which is walking or running, the senses give you agreeing inputs,” says Bubka.
“But when your sense of motion doesn’t match up to your sense of sight, your brain may be reacting as if it’s been poisoned,” adds Bonato. “The reaction is to eliminate the poison by either vomiting or having diarrhea. It’s because of evolutionary hardwiring in the brain that leads the brain to mistakenly react as if poisoning has occurred.”
There is no real known reason why some people are more prone to motion sickness than others, the two researchers explain, but they do note some research has found that motion sickness seems to affect more women than men, and even people of certain ethnicities more than others.
“This isn’t just a human problem, either,” notes Bonato. “Motion sickness is experienced by most vertebrates. When some fish are transported in tanks in aircraft, they later find fish vomit, which indicates that the fish developed motion sickness on the ride.”
