Affiliations: [a] Section of Otoneurology, University Hospital of Neurology and Psychiatry, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria | [b] Department of Gastroenterology, Bertha Academic Hospital, 4100 Duisburg, Germany
Note: [*] Reprint address: Dr. Ognyan I. Kolev, Department of Otolaryngology, Room 7.102, Medical Research Building, J-63, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1063.
Abstract: The cardinal symptoms of motion sickness occur in the gastrointestinal system. This study sought to investigate the influence of sickness-provoking motion stimuli on the interdigestive migrating electric complex (IDMEC) of the gastrointestinal system. Thirteen susceptibles and 14 insusceptibles to motion sickness were subjected to intralumenal recording before and after caloric vestibular stimulations. Motion sickness developed in all subjects. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the IDMECs of susceptibles and insusceptibles in a state of rest; vestibular stimulation changes the duration of IDMEC phases (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01); IDMEC changes differ slightly between susceptibles and insusceptibles; motion stimuli induce simultaneous nonpropulsive spike activity, which is more frequent in susceptibles (P < 0.01); vestibular stimulation applied during phase III of IDMEC does not provoke vomiting in susceptibles.
Keywords: interdigestive, migrating electric complex, caloric vestibular stimulation, motion sickness
