Emotional and Cognitive Modulation of Cybersickness: The Role of Pain Catastrophizing and Body Awareness

Abstract

Objective: The goal was to investigate the influence of the tendency to catastrophize somatic symptoms and body awareness on motion-related sickness. Background: Influences of emotional and cognitive-evaluative processes on the genesis of motion sickness or cybersickness have rarely been investigated. Brain imaging studies showed activation during cybersickness, resembling the pattern found for pain processing. Two aspects often investigated in this context are pain catastrophizing and body awareness. The present two studies investigated the relationship of motion-related sickness to two tendencies involved in pain processing: pain catastrophizing and body awareness. Method: In the first study, 115 participants reported their motion sickness history, pain catastrophizing, and body awareness. In the second study, 40 participants were exposed to a virtual reality and reported their experience of cybersickness as well as their pain catastrophizing and body awareness. Results: Pain catastrophizing was positively correlated to motion sickness history and cybersickness. Body awareness did not show a linear effect on motion sickness history or cybersickness. However, the interaction effect of pain catastrophizing and body awareness was significant in both studies. Conclusion: Pain catastrophizing seems to have a detrimental effect on cybersickness symptoms. Body awareness moderated the relationship in the sense that the combination of high pain catastrophizing and low body awareness lead to the highest sickness levels. Application: Affective and cognitive modulation of cybersickness symptoms should be considered when exposing risk groups to motion-related adverse stimuli.

Cybersickness in current-generation virtual reality head-mounted displays: systematic review and outlook

“…As discussed by Kramida (2016), the vergence-accommodation conflict could be an explanation for this difference. These results suggest that immersive VR applications such as virtual roller coasters (Nesbitt et al 2017;Nalivaiko et al 2015;Sra et al 2019;Gavgani et al 2017;Jin et al 2018;Onuki et al 2017), car simulations (Walch et al 2017;Weidner et al 2017;Rietzler et al 2018;Oishi et al 2016), bike driving simulators (Tran et al 2018;Mittelstädt et al 2019), flight simulations (Garcia-Agundez et al 2019a;Mirhosseini et al 2017) and wheelchair simulators (John et al 2018;Chowdhury et al 2017b) cause higher SSQ scores due to sensory mismatch and, in particular, due to perceived self-motion while remaining stationary. Some studies suggest that air cushions (Onuki et al 2017) or vibrokinetic seats (Gardé et al 2018) can mitigate CS symptoms while driving.…”

Exploring the Participant-Related Determinants of Simulator Sickness in a Physical Motion Car Rollover Simulation as Measured by the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire

“…Some researchers found a link between SS and specific movement patterns or postural instability, the latter of which was reported to be more prevalent in older adults and females [ 24 , 33 , 40 , 47 , 70 , 71 ]. Additional participant-related factors reportedly increasing susceptibility include lower concentration level, variable mood and energetic arousal, weaker feeling of presence in simulated environment, tendency for pain catastrophising, higher anxiety levels, neuroticism, perceptual style, Chinese ethnicity, health status, and even better aerobic fitness [ 15 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 61 , 72 ].…”

“…The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the latter category, i.e., the participant-related variables that may influence the symptomatology of SS in a real-motion car rollover simulation as measured with the SSQ, with a focus on participants’ gender and prior experiences. A considerable body of research has been devoted to the effect of such physiological variables as participants’ gender [ 24 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ], age [ 2 , 26 , 29 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ], health status [ 4 , 37 ], or ethnicity [ 37 , 38 ], and to some psychological ones, for example pain catastrophising [ 39 ], anxiety, or neuroticism [ 14 , 38 , 40 , 41 ]. At the same time, relatively few studies have explored such participant-related factors as participants’ experiences.…”

Réalité augmentée appliquée au processus d'innovation - Technologies et impacts dans l’entreprise

“…Cinq conditions de stress sont générées par la variation de la densité de la population d'humanoïdes, de En conclusion, les liens entre anxiété et cybercinétose ne sont pas encore complétement élucidés, mais il est clair que la nature du lien est différente dans une population de patients psychiatriques et dans une population de participants sans pathologie psychiatrique, comme cela a déjà été suggéré dans d'autres études publiées avant 2010. Ces liens ont également été décrits dans (Mittelstädt et al, 2019). Le recouvrement de la symptomatologie de la cybercinétose et de l'anxiété rend difficile l'étude de ce lien, mais suggère qu'une thérapie pour un trouble anxieux en réalité virtuelle a d'autant plus d'intérêt qu'elle va susciter une adaptation à la cybercinétose au cours des sessions.…”

“…Le niveau de cybercinétose dans la condition manette/visiocasque ne corrélait pas avec l'historique du mal des transports, mais était relié négativement à la fréquence d'utilisation de jeux vidéo : plus on joue, moins on est sensible à la cybercinétose dans la condition manette/visiocasque. Une publication du même groupe(Mittelstädt et al, 2019) confirme le lien entre scores au MSSQ et au SSQ. L'étude a de plus examiné les liens entre la cybercinétose et l'interprétation excessive de la douleur (attitude mentale exagérément négative par rapport à la douleur) d'une part, et les liens entre cybercinétose et conscience corporelle d'autre part, en faisant l'hypothèse que la focalisation sur les effets indésirables d'une situation en augmente l'intensité, et qu'une conscience corporelle élevée permettrait au contraire de limiter les effets de la cybercinétose.…”