VESTIBULAR STIMULATION AND FOREARM BLOOD FLOW

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Abstract
Forty-six adult male subjects have been exposed to strong vestibular stimulation produced by controlled cyclic nodding of the head while being rotated in the horizontal plane on a turntable at constant angular velocity. Forearm blood flow was measured with a mercury-in-rubber strain gauge plethysmograph standardized against a conventional plethysmographic technique. There was wide variability among the subjects in the amount of vestibular stimulation needed to cause nausea just short of emesis. Motion sickness, when unequivocal, was accompanied by increased blood flow in the forearm and nearly always by an increase in the circumference of the forearm when venous flow was not occluded. Resistant subjects, in whom motion sickness was either minimal or not apparent, showed either no increase in forearm blood flow or increases that were equivocal. It is concluded that increased muscle blood flow may now be added to antidiuresis, nausea, pallor, and sweating, as a physiological response common to the vasovagal syndrome and to motion sickness caused by vestibular stimulation. A possible explanation of the results and their relation to aviation are discussed.

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