Research Article

Motion sickness and its impact on auditory spatial perception and working memory

Abstract

Background and aim: Motion sickness, characterized by conflicting sensory signals, negatively impacts attention and cognitive functions. This study investigated the effects of motion sickness on auditory spatial perception and working memory in adults with normal hearing.
Methods: A Standard group comparison was conducted on  100 adults with motion sickness, classified into three groups—normal-minimal, mild-moderate, and severe—based on Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ)-short scores. Standardized assessments were used to evaluate auditory spatial perception, including interaural time difference (ITD), interaural level difference (ILD), and the Virtual Acoustic Space Identification (VASI) test, along with working memory assessed through the forward digit span and 2-back test. ITD and ILD tests involved a discrimination task using psychoacoustic staircase procedure, VASI required identification of virtual locations within head, and memory tasks involved repetition digits and 2nd last digit in sequence, in forward task, and 2-back tasks, respectively.
Results: Participants with motion sickness (mild-moderate and severe groups) performed significantly poorer (p < 0.05) than those without on the VASI test, forward digit span, and 2-back. A moderate negative correlation was observed between MSSQ-short and VASI scores. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) revealed that participants with severe motion sickness could be categorized from the other two less severity groups (normal-minimal, mild-moderate), with VASI and forward digit span emerging as the most sensitive indicators of motion sickness induced changes in spatial and working memory.  
Conclusion: Findings underscores the importance of monitoring motion sickness, as it can impair spatial processing and working memory tasks in auditory domain.

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Keywords
Motion sickness Spatial perception Cognition Working memory Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire scores Vestibular
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Nisha K, Bhattacharyya R, Upadhya S, Jargar R. Motion sickness and its impact on auditory spatial perception and working memory. Aud Vestib Res. 2025;.