Subjective Concomitants of Motion Sickness: Quantifying Rotation‐induced Illness in Squirrel Monkeys

Abstract

It has been suggested by numerous researchers that the development of conditioned food aversion (CFA) in experimental animals represents the presence of a subjective state of illness. Squirrel monkeys with proven susceptibility to rotation-induced vomiting were given surgical bilateral labyrinthectomies, a procedure known to abolish signs and symptoms of motion sickness in human beings. Postoperatively, labyrinthectomized monkeys neither vomited nor revealed any reduction in food consumption when exposed to provocative rotation. Other samples of monkeys known to be refractory to horizontal rotation and to sinusoidal vertical motion also exhibited little tendency to acquire a conditioned aversion to banana. But monkeys who had sham operations and those who revealed weak-to-strong signs of motion sickness exhibited a marked CFA (significant reduction in food intake). The strength of CFA was much greater when elicited in the test vehicle when compared with response in the home cage. The findings are interpreted as support for a limited application of CFA procedures for inferring the presence of motion-induced nausea and malaise.

Signals for nausea and emesis: Implications for models of upper gastrointestinal diseases

“…Hamster Cytotoxic drugs: Cyclophosphamide (Hobbs et al, 1976) Intragastric irritants: LiCl (Fox, 1977) Apomorphine (Nowlis et al, 1980) Nicotine (Etscorn et al, 1986) Other: 2-deoxy-D-glucose (Dibattista, 1988) Human Cytotoxic drugs: Chemotherapy (Rudd and Andrews, 2005) Chemotherapy (Schwartz et al, 1996) Intragastric irritants: Ipecac (Jackson and Smith, 1978), Copper sulfate (Liu et al, 2001) Ipecac (Jackson and Smith, 1978) Motion (Yates et al, 1998) (Arwas et al, 1989) Apomorphine (Schofferman, 1976) Morphine (Bailey et al, 1993) Radiation (Cordts et al, 1987) (Carrell et al, 1986) Hormones and neurotransmitters: CCK (Miaskiewicz et al, 1989) Other: Pregnancy (Weigel and Weigel, 1989), Reduced intracranial pressure (Mokri, 2004) Pregnancy (Bayley et al, 2002) Pregnancy (Corbett et al, 2003;Lopez et al, 2004), Gastric bypass surgery (Kushner et al, 2004) Monkey Cytotoxic drugs: Cisplatin (Fukui et al, 1993) Cyclophosphamide (Hikami et al, 1990) Intragastric irritants: Copper sulfate (Fukui et al, 1993) LiCl (Bergman and Glowa, 1986) Motion (Wilpizeski et al, 1987) (Wilpizeski et al, 1987) Radiation (Brizzee, 1956) Nicotine (Spealman, 1983) Hormones and neurotransmitters: CCK (Perera et al, 1993) Mouse Cytotoxic drugs: Cisplatin …”

Vestibular lesions selectively abolish body rotation-induced, but not lithium-induced, conditioned taste aversions (oral rejection responses) in rats.

“…Experimental evidence for motion sickness in nonhuman primates (e.g., Johnson et al, 1962; Wilpizeski et al, 1985; Wilpizeski, Lowry, Green, Smith & Melnick, 1987), cats and dogs (e.g., Borison & Borison, 1986; Money & Friedberg, 1964), and musk shrews (e.g., Javid & Naylor, 1999; Ueno, Matsuki & Saito, 1988) is well established when an emetic response is used as the criterion. There also is evidence for the occurrence of motion sickness in animals, such as rats, which do not possess an emetic reflex (Hatcher, 1924).…”

Conditioned inhibition of rotation-induced taste aversion

“…Evidence for the related and critical role played by the vestibular system in contributing to motion-induced visceral discomfort in taste-aversion conditioning in rats is seen in the findings of Haroutunian and Riccio (1975), and Wilpizeski, Lowry, Green, Smith, and Melnick (1987) have shown that bilateral labyrinthectomy also prevents rotation-induced taste aversion in squirrel monkeys.…”