The publication of this study was supported by the Initial Training Network NEUROGUT funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (PITN-GA-2013-607652). We thank J&#246;rg Schulte, Annamaria Maichle and Damaris Schrade for their help conducting the described studies, Jenna L. Scisco for her training in analyzing EGG data, and Sibylle Klosterhalfen for sharing her expertise in motion sickness research.

Ethics statement
The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Board of the University Medical School T&#252;bingen, Germany. Participants gave written informed consent prior to inclusion, and complete disclosure of the study purpose was offered to all participants after completion of the study 17.
1. Study Preparation
<ol>
	<li>Prepare the &#8220;drugs&#8221; used: fill similar looking, tasting and smelling capsules with a) ginger powder, and b) a &#8220;placebo powder&#8221; such as starch. The capsules should be prepared and stored in a numbered envelope by a third person to keep the experimenter blind to the condition.</li>
	<li>Randomly assign participant to one of the four study groups of the balanced placebo design as described above (Table 1).</li>
	<li>Preparations to assess outcome measures.
	<ol>
		<li>Prepare a questionnaire to fill in symptom ratings of participant. Seven symptoms (vertigo, headache, nausea, urge to vomit, tiredness, sweating, stomach awareness) will be rated on a scale from 0 (no symptom) to 5 (maximal symptom) six times during the experiment.</li>
		<li>Prepare a table to fill in rotation times and the number of head movements during five runs of the rotation procedure, and use a stopwatch to assess rotation times.</li>
		<li>Prepare the equipment for recording the EGG: three cutaneous electrodes, EGG device with Fetrode technology (active electrodes).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
2. Preparing Participants
<ol>
	<li>Prepare the EGG recordings.
	<ol>
		<li>Place three cutaneous electrodes on the skin above the stomach of the participant as described by Miller and Muth (2004) 24. Place the first electrode on the lower third of the midline between the umbilicus and sternum. Place the second electrode in a 45&#176; angle upwards from the first electrode but under the lowest rip on the left side. Place the third electrode (reference electrode) in a 45&#176; angle downwards from the first electrode to the right side.</li>
		<li>Connect the electrodes to the EGG device and start the recording software.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Seat the participant in the rotation chair and store the EGG device in a bag at the backside of the chair.</li>
</ol>
3. Baseline Assessments and Drug Intake
<ol>
	<li>First baseline assessment before drug intake.
	<ol>
		<li>Record at least 15 min of EGG previous to any intervention. Instruct participant not to move, speak or take deep breaths during this period of time.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Drug administration.
	<ol>
		<li>According to group assignment, the participant takes the pills (drug or placebo) without receiving any information about their content.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Second baseline assessment after drug intake.
	<ol>
		<li>Record at least 15 min of EGG after drug intake. Instruct participant not to move, speak or take deep breaths during this period of time.</li>
		<li>Afterwards, ask participant for seven symptoms of motion sickness (see above) on a scale between 0 (not symptom) to 5 (severe symptom).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Optional: Depending on the assumed time until onset of action of the tested drug, perform further baseline assessments as described above.</li>
</ol>
4. Inform Participant about Group Assignment
<ol>
	<li>Immediately before the rotation procedure, inform the participant about his/her group assignment according to the balanced placebo design, i.e. if he/she received the real drug or the placebo. 
	NOTE: The participant receives this information in a closed envelope to keep the experimenter blind to the condition.</li>
</ol>
5. Rotation Procedure
<ol>
	<li>Give instructions to the participant.
	<ol>
		<li>The rotation procedure consists of 5 runs, each with 2 min of rotation at a constant speed of 120 degrees/sec (20 rounds per min) and a 1 min break in-between the runs.</li>
		<li>The participant will wear an eye mask and earphones and hear a beep every 10 sec. During rotations, the participant is instructed to move his/her head up and down when he/she hear the beep tone from the earphones.</li>
		<li>Participants should not vomit during the procedure and can skip head movements or tell the experimenter to stop the rotation in time if they strongly feel an urge to vomit. They are encouraged to proceed with the next run until all 5 runs have at least been started. However, the runs can be interrupted immediately, or the entire procedure can be stopped if necessary.</li>
		<li>During the breaks in-between the runs and after the last run, participants will be asked to rate seven symptoms of motion sickness on a scale from 0 (no symptom) to 5 (maximal symptom).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Start the rotation procedure.</li>
	<li>During the rotation procedure, note the actually done head movements and the rotation time of each run.</li>
	<li>During the breaks and after the last run, ask the participant to rate symptoms and note the rating on the questionnaire.</li>
</ol>
6. Post Assessments
<ol>
	<li>After the last run has finished and the subjective symptoms have been rated, record another 15 min of EGG during which participants should not move, speak, or take deep breaths.</li>
</ol>
7. Calculate Outcome Variables
<ol>
	<li>Calculate subjective symptom ratings by adding the scores of each symptom for each of the six time points (at baseline and after each run) separately. Take the highest symptom rating during the rotation procedure and subtract the baseline symptom rating to get the final maximum symptom rating during the rotation procedure (SR). 
	NOTE: Choosing the maximum symptom score as an outcome measure provides the advantage that in can also be used for participants who cannot tolerate the entire procedure - in contrast to the calculation of a sum or a mean value that are influenced by the number of runs tolerated.</li>
	<li>Add up rotation times for the total rotation tolerance in seconds (RT).</li>
	<li>Add the number of head movements during the rotation procedure for the total number of head movements (HM).</li>
</ol>
8. Analyze EGG Data
<ol>
	<li>Visually screen the raw EGG data for artifacts and select at least 5 min of artifact-free recording during the recording periods. As a rule of thumb, artifacts are defined as signals with fast and sudden onset and signals stronger than +/- 1,000 &#956;V because such signals are improbable gastric myoelectrical activities.</li>
	<li>Use a Fast Fourier Transformation software to analyze the frequency domain of the EGG signal. As definition, signals between 2.5 and 3.75 cpm are regarded as normal gastric activity (normogastria) and between 4.0 and 9.75 cpm are regarded as tachygastria.</li>
	<li>Calculate the percentage spectral power of the normogastria and tachygastria bands from the total range of 0.75 to 15.0 cpm 23, and compute the ratio between the percentage of the normogastria and the tachygastria band (EGG ratio). A shift towards tachygastria (i.e., the ratio decreases) has repeatedly been associated with nausea in motion sickness induced by rotation chair or vection drum 19,23,24.</li>
</ol>

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

The methodology described provides the possibility to assess placebo responses in motion sickness in a multivariate way and appropriate timing of drug intake and administration of information. However, it was difficult to detect placebo responses in the conducted study 17. This could be due to various facts, critical steps and limitations.
First, women could be more susceptible to stimuli eliciting motion sickness 15. Also, women and men could be differentially susceptible to placebo inducing methods. For example, women were more susceptible to Pavlovian conditioning procedures to worsen symptoms and men were more susceptible to suggested symptom increases 16. Furthermore, there could be interactional effects with participant&#8217;s and experimenter&#8217;s sex 27,28. This must be taken into account and studies must be powered to detect such interactions.
Second, we assume that the stimuli of 5 runs with 2 min duration at a speed of 120 degrees/sec (20 rounds per minute) were too strong and could not be affected by a weak herbal remedy like ginger or information only. All of the 64 participants reported moderate to strong symptoms although not all of them reported to have ever been motion sick before, e.g. during rides in cars, on boats, or funfair rides, as assessed with the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ) 29. Furthermore, the assessed motion sickness susceptibility did not influence any of the outcome measures in this or the subsequent study 17,18. For the subsequent experiment investigating an enhanced placebo instruction, we used a pilot study to assess appropriate speeds: With lower speeds of 10 and 15 rounds per minute, we found significant differences between groups 18.
Third, the most critical step is the assessment of the physiological outcome measure with an EGG in this study. This method is very sensitive to artifacts; consequently data loss due to dropouts is frequent. Therefore, the preparation of equipment, study design and careful participant instruction are crucial to reduce artifacts due to movements, speaking, or deep breaths. This not only applies to EGG recordings but also to recordings of electrocardiograms (ECG) or other physiological methods.
For future applications of the multivariate assessment of placebo responses, these critical points must be taken into consideration not only when investigating motion sickness but also for other symptoms such as pain or depressions. Participants could be differentially susceptible to different kinds of stimuli and symptoms, e.g. due to gender differences 30, or because of different symptom histories and treatment experiences 31. Furthermore, the severity of induced symptoms plays a role in experimental placebo research on motion sickness where strong symptoms could lead to unexpected results 17,18,25,26. We have recently shown that a lower baseline severity of symptoms could be a predictor for higher placebo responses in the placebo arm of clinical trials for the treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders, neurological disorders and pain (Weimer, K., Colloca, L. &#38; Enck, P., in press). In contrast, effect sizes of placebo analgesia in experimental studies were higher with long-lasting stimuli compared to painful stimuli of short duration 32. Therefore, the kind and intensity of stimuli must be considered thoroughly when planning an experimental study to facilitate placebo effects.
Finally, for the assessment of multivariate outcome measures it is important to find the appropriate physiological correlate of the placebo response that will be investigated as an objective marker, such as the gastric myoelectrical activity in motion sickness that can be assessed with electrogastrography. In some conditions the target organ and the according physiological measure are easy to find and assess, e.g. heart function with ECG and blood pressure measurement when investigating placebo responses that accompany drugs for hypertension 6, but can be more complex in conditions like pain and depression. For example, Eippert and colleagues found that placebo analgesia can act on the level of the spinal cord as the earliest stage of pain processing in the central nervous system 33 that can be detected with high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) only. Future studies should investigate which conditions will activate and modulate this mechanism. Objective assessments are also important in conditions mainly monitored by patient reported outcomes, such as questionnaires in depression, that can considerably deviate from expert rated outcomes 34 and may be subject to biases. Despite this fact, objective outcomes such as the assessment of reward-related neural activation is only seldom used 35. In conclusion, assessing placebo responses by multivariate outcomes will improve our understanding of predictors and mediators of placebo effects and their underlying psychological and physiological mechanisms.

The overall goal of the described methodology is the multivariate assessment of placebo responses by subjective, behavioral and objective measures in motion sickness with a rotation chair paradigm in healthy participants.
Placebo effects and responses play a role in every medical intervention when patients or participants expect to get an effective treatment to relieve symptoms in everyday medical practice or in clinical trials 1. In the latter, placebo groups are included to control for placebo effects and all unspecific effects that could occur during the study, such as the natural course of disease (spontaneous remission, fluctuation of symptoms, regression to the mean, habituation), observer and patient biases (scaling biases, social desirability, conditioned answers), or &#8220;real&#8221; placebo responses 2. Placebo responses are symptom improvements in individuals that occur only because of patients&#8217; or participants&#8217; expectancy or learned responses to a specific treatment. While learning is multi-faceted, it is assumed that all aspects of learning result in an expectancy concerning the treatment &#8211; whether by conscious expectations or unconscious conditioned reactions 1,3.
Studies with the primary aim to investigate placebo responses have to include additional groups to control for the above mentioned unspecific effects in comparison to the pure placebo response. For example, a group with positive expectancy concerning the treatment is compared with a group with no expectancy concerning the treatment while both groups receive the same inert substance. One possible study design is the so-called balanced placebo design (Table 1) in which half of the participants receive the real drug and the other half receives a placebo, and half of the participants of each drug group receive the correct information and the other half receives the wrong information about the drug received. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the four groups to assess the differential effects of the drug received and the information given in a between-groups design. Therefore, the four groups are real drug/drug information, real drug/placebo information, placebo/drug information, placebo/placebo information 4.
A further question in placebo research is whether patients or participants &#8220;only&#8221; feel better subjectively or whether there is an objectively measurable change in physiology 5,6. Imaging studies, especially in experimental pain studies, have shown repeatedly that placebo responses are associated with changes in neural activity, e.g. in the somatosensory cortex 7 or in the rostral anterior cingulated cortex (rACC) that is also involved in opioid analgesia 8,9. Therefore, it is clear that placebo responses are not only subjective response biases by participants. However, there is the remaining question whether placebo responses also occur in the target organ such as the stomach in motion sickness. To investigate this question it is necessary not only to ask for subjective symptom reports but also to assess objective organ specific measures.
Inducing motion sickness in a rotation chair paradigm in healthy subjects is a useful and easy to establish methodology to investigate placebo responses in a multivariate way. According to the neural mismatch theory 10,11, motion sickness occurs because of a mismatch between actual and expected perceptions from different sensory systems such as the vestibular and the visual system. This mismatch leads to a series of vegetative symptoms like nausea, vertigo, sweating, or tiredness but also to changes in gastric myoelectrical activity 12,13, and can be evoked in most healthy participants depending on the strength of the stimulus 14. We have already repeatedly employed this rotation chair paradigm to induce motion sickness to investigate mediators 15 and placebo and nocebo responses 16-18. In this paradigm, healthy participants are seated in a rotating chair, have to wear an eye mask and earphones to reduce the ability to orientate themselves during the rotation procedure, and to move their head slowly up and down. Particularly, the head movements induce the so-called Coriolis effect, the experience of an illusionary tumbling movement that leads to symptoms of nausea 11. Participants can be asked to rate a list of subjective symptoms that typically occur during motion sickness, behavioral measures such as the number of head movements and the total rotation time tolerated can be assessed, and gastric myoelectrical activity can be objectively recorded with electrogastrography (EGG).
To record EGG data, three cutaneous electrodes are placed on the skin above the stomach and connected to a recording device 19,20. As myoelectrical signals of the stomach are weaker than those from the heart, it is recommended to use an active electrodes technique that amplifies signals directly at the electrodes&#8217; side before sending them to the recording device. Although the EGG is sensitive to movement artifacts by speaking or deep breathing, it provides the advantage that it is a non-invasive technique and does not affect the studied physiological reactions of the stomach. In comparison, techniques such as implanted serosal electrodes 21 or fluoroscopies 22 are more invasive and could affect the studied behavior in an unforeseen way. To analyze EGG data, the data are screened visually for artifacts and are analyzed with a time series analysis such as a Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT). A predominance of the frequency range around three cycles per min (cpm) is regarded as normal gastric activity (normogastria) and a range from 4 to 10 cpm as tachygastria. A shift from normogastria in a baseline assessment to tachygastria has repeatedly been associated with nausea induced by rotation chair or vection drum 19,23,24.
There are only a few studies that have investigated placebo responses in motion sickness by manipulating expectations only, but these have lacked successful induction of a placebo response in any outcome measure 25,26. When participants were exposed to a motion sickness inducing stimulus after being given a placebo pill along with the information that it will either: decrease symptoms (placebo information); increase symptoms (nocebo information); or have no effect; participants who received the nocebo information reported fewer symptoms and showed less tachygastria compared to the other groups 26. A possible explanation by the authors was that participants who were given the positive information were disappointed that they had strong symptoms although they received the drug, but participants who were given the negative information were surprised that the procedure was not as strong as they expected. In a study by our own group, only male participants who were told that an orally delivered medication would increase symptoms (nocebo effect) compared to participants who did not receive any information showed lowered rotation tolerance without an effect on symptom ratings 16.
In conclusion, placebo responses through positive information given along with a placebo treatment have not been demonstrated on motion sickness with a rotation chair paradigm, except latter studies of our own group 18 (Weimer, K., Horing, B., Klosterhalfen, S., &#38; Enck, P., 2012). Furthermore, placebo responses have rarely been investigated with multiple outcome measures in one study. The focus of this article is, therefore, to describe a methodology to assess placebo responses in a multivariate way by subjective, behavioral and objective outcome measures in an experimental paradigm for studying motion sickness.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Cleartrace electrodes</td><td>P.J. Dahlhausen &amp;amp; Co. GmbH, K&amp;ouml;ln, Germany</td><td>2801700030</td><td>Cutaneous electrodes for the EGG recording</td></tr><tr><td>Eye mask</td><td>(any eye mask)</td><td></td><td>To blindfold participants to reduce orientation</td></tr><tr><td>Fast Fourier Transformation software</td><td>Custom software using Prime Factor FFT for Windows, version 3.03, Alligator Technologies, Costa Mesa, CA, USA</td><td></td><td>Software that analyzes EGG data in the frequency domain using an Fast Fourier Transfomation.</td></tr><tr><td>Fetrode amplifier</td><td>UFI, Morrow Bay, CA, USA</td><td>Model 2283FT</td><td>Cables with integrated active electrodes (Fetrode technology) (http://www.ufiservingscience.com/fetrode.html)</td></tr><tr><td>Ginger capsules</td><td>Gr&amp;uuml;nwalder GmbH, Bad T&amp;ouml;lz, Germany</td><td>Zintona PZN 3041933</td><td>Capsules filled with ginger powder (http://www.gruenwalder.de/English/Products/Zintona/)</td></tr><tr><td>MP3-Player with earphones</td><td>(any MP3-Player with earphones)</td><td></td><td>To reduce the ability to orientate because of sound in the surrounding, and to provide a beep tone every 10 sec that instruct participants to move their head up and down (http://www.ufiservingscience.com/dat_logs.html)</td></tr><tr><td>Placebo capsules</td><td></td><td></td><td>Capsules filled with starch</td></tr><tr><td>Protocol</td><td>Own protocol</td><td></td><td>Protocol to note head movements and rotation durations</td></tr><tr><td>Rotation chair for medical use</td><td>Standart Instruments GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany</td><td>Tornado</td><td>Custom made medical rotation chair with variable rotation speed and variable ramp acceleration/deceleration</td></tr><tr><td>Stopwatch</td><td>(any stopwatch)</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Symptom ratings</td><td>Own symptom list (modified Graybiel scale)</td><td></td><td>7-item symptom list to note symptoms on a scale from 0 = none to 5 = maximal</td></tr><tr><td>UFI BioLogs</td><td>UFI, Morrow Bay, CA, USA</td><td>Model 3991</td><td>Ambulatory data logger to record EGGs</td></tr></tbody></table>

how to study placebo responses in motion sickness with a rotation chair paradigm in healthy participants

Placebo responses occur in every medical intervention when patients or participants expect to receive an effective treatment to relieve symptoms. However, underlying mechanisms of placebo responses are not fully understood. It has repeatedly been shown that placebo responses are associated with changes in neural activity but for many conditions it is unclear whether they also affect the target organ, such as the stomach in motion sickness. Therefore, we present a methodology for the multivariate assessment of placebo responses by subjective, behavioral and objective measures in motion sickness with a rotation chair paradigm. The physiological correlate of motion sickness is a shift in gastric myoelectrical activity towards tachygastria that can be recorded with electrogastrography. The presented study applied the so-called balanced placebo design (BPD) to investigate the effects of ginger compared to placebo and the effects of expectations by verbal information. However, the study revealed no significant main or interactional effects of ginger (as a drug) or information on outcome measures but showed interactions when sex of participants and experimenters are taken into considerations. We discuss limitations of the presented study and report modifications that were used in subsequent studies demonstrating placebo responses when rotation speed was lowered. In general, future placebo studies have to identify the appropriate target organ for the studied placebo responses and to apply the specific methods to assess the physiological correlates.

This study protocol has been used to investigate the effects of ginger and expectations on symptoms of motion sickness with a rotation chair paradigm in healthy participants 17. Variants of this protocol have also been used in other studies of our work group to investigate placebo effects by expectations and conditioning procedures 16,18.
To analyze results, the four groups of the balanced placebo design should be compared concerning the subjective (SR), behavioral (RT, HM), and objective (EGG ratio) outcome measures with 2 x 2 analyses of variances (ANOVA) (drug x information). Including all variables at once in a multivariate ANOVA reduces alpha-error accumulation. However, we decided not to include EGG ratio in this analysis because of data drop outs due to movement artifacts as this would reduce participant numbers for the whole analysis. Furthermore, the EGG ratios should be included in a repeated measure ANOVA to assess whether there is a significant shift towards tachygastria during the experiment.
The conducted study 17 revealed an effect of ginger on gastric myoelectrical activity that attenuated a decrease of the normo-to-tachy EGG ratio before the rotation procedure but did not prevent a decrease in the ratio during the rotation procedure (Figure 1). The information given did not significantly affect the EGG ratio but results provide hints that the information could have had an effect as the placebo/placebo group had the lowest EGG ratio and the ginger/ginger group had the highest EGG ratio (Table 2). The non-significance of this result could be due to the strong stimuli applied as discussed below.
The differences between groups for SR, RT and HM were also not significant. However, the study revealed an additional interactional effect with sex of participants and experimenters: a placebo response was detected when male participants were given placebo pills with the ginger information by the female experimenter. Furthermore, subjective (SR) and behavioral (RT, HM) measures were associated in women (SR-RT: r = -0.524, p &#60;0.001, and SR-HM: r= -0.465, p =.002), but not in men 17. The interactional effect of sex of participants and experimenters is not part of the methodology, and is, therefore, not discussed in detail at this point (for further discussion of this result please see Weimer et al., 2012 17).
This study design provides the possibility to assess the main and interactional effects of drug and information, and the multivariate assessment of placebo responses: A significant difference between the pills given reveals that the drug has an effect on one of the outcome measures, whereas a significant difference between the information given reveals that the information affects the outcome measures. A significant interactional effect between drug and information reveals that the information given differentially affects the drug effect. According to the literature about the balanced placebo design 4, the biggest difference is expected between the group that is given the real drug along with the correct information (drug plus high expectation) and the group that is given the placebo along with the correct information (placebo plus no expectation). A significant difference between groups in SR only means that participants feel better but this is not mirrored in their behavior (longer RT, more HM) or in the objective measure (higher EGG ratio). A significant difference between groups in RT only means that participants probably try to show socially desirable behavior but do not really feel better (SR, EGG ratio). A significant difference in EGG ratio means that the information given and/or the drug have an effect on gastric myoelectrical activity.
<img alt="Figure 1" fo:content-width="6.7in" src="/files/ftp_upload/52471/52471fig1.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: Electrogastrogram (EGG) in participants that received ginger or placebo. Legend text: EGG was evaluated as the ratio between normal activity (2.5 to 3.75 cycles per minute, cpm) and activity in the tachygastria band (4.0 to 9.75 cpm). With increasing nausea, this ratio decreases. Data segments were recorded at baseline, twice after drug application, and after rotation. The constant fall of the ratio from baseline to post rotation is interrupted in the ginger group but ginger was not able to prevent nausea to occur with rotation (Modified with permission from Weimer et al. 2012).
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<colgroup>
		<col span="2" />
		<col />
		<col />
	</colgroup>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td colspan="2">Information</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Drug</td>
			<td>Placebo</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td rowspan="2">Application</td>
			<td>Drug</td>
			<td>true positive</td>
			<td>false negative</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Placebo</td>
			<td>false positive</td>
			<td>true negative</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
Table 1: The balanced placebo design.
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<colgroup>
		<col />
		<col span="5" />
	</colgroup>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Application (drug)</td>
			<td>Placebo</td>
			<td>Placebo</td>
			<td>Ginger</td>
			<td>Ginger</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Info</td>
			<td>Placebo</td>
			<td>Ginger</td>
			<td>Placebo</td>
			<td>Ginger</td>
			<td>Statistics</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HM</td>
			<td>46.1 &#177; 17.2</td>
			<td>48.1 &#177; 13.9</td>
			<td>38.3 &#177; 19.0</td>
			<td>45.1 &#177; 13.9</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RT (sec)</td>
			<td>497 &#177; 163</td>
			<td>482 &#177; 142</td>
			<td>436 &#177; 182</td>
			<td>466 &#177; 152</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SR</td>
			<td>20.2 &#177; 5.8</td>
			<td>20.5 &#177; 6.3</td>
			<td>18.9 &#177; 6.8</td>
			<td>20.8 &#177; 6.1</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EGG (n)</td>
			<td>12</td>
			<td>14</td>
			<td>13</td>
			<td>13</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EGG normo (%)</td>
			<td>16.8 &#177; 5.5</td>
			<td>18.2 &#177; 8.3</td>
			<td>21.7 &#177; 7.2</td>
			<td>20.8 &#177; 9.3</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EGG tachy (%)</td>
			<td>25.8 &#177; 9.2</td>
			<td>23.6 &#177; 7.7</td>
			<td>27.9 &#177; 7.9</td>
			<td>24.0 &#177; 6.9</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EGG ratio</td>
			<td>0.78 &#177; 0.45</td>
			<td>0.92 &#177; 0.63</td>
			<td>0.90 &#177; 0.59</td>
			<td>0.96 &#177; 0.64</td>
			<td>n.s.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
Table 2: Data between groups during and after rotations.
Legend text: HM = head movements, RT = rotation tolerance, SR = maximum symptom rating during rotations, EGG (n) = number of participants with all 4 measures available, EGG normo (%) = percentage of activity in the normogastric band, EGG tachy (%) = percentage of activity in the tachygastria band, EGG ratio = ratio between normogastria and tachygastria band (adapted with permission from Weimer et al. 2012).

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants at JoVE.com

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants

An experimental rotation chair paradigm is used to investigate whether a placebo intervention on motion sickness affects subjective outcome measures only or also affects behavioral and objective measures in a balanced placebo design.

Placebo responses occur in every medical intervention when patients or participants expect to receive an effective treatment to relieve symptoms. However, ...

how-to-study-placebo-responses-motion-sickness-with-rotation-chair

Universidad de Cartagena UDEC

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Behavior

9.2K Views.  University Hospital Tübingen. An experimental rotation chair paradigm is used to investigate whether a placebo intervention on motion sickness affects subjective outcome measures only or also affects behavioral and objective measures in a balanced placebo design.

Video: How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants

MPI CyberMotion Simulator: Implementation of a Novel Motion Simulator to Investigate Multisensory Path Integration in Three Dimensions

Path integration is a process in which self-motion is integrated over time to obtain an estimate of one's current position relative to a starting point 1. Humans can do path integration based exclusively on visual 2-3, auditory 4, or inertial cues 5. However, with multiple cues present, inertial cues - particularly kinaesthetic - seem to dominate 6-7. In the absence of vision, humans tend to overestimate short distances (&lt;5 m) and turning angles (&lt;30&deg;), but underestimate longer ones 5. Movement through physical space therefore does not seem to be accurately represented by the brain.
Extensive work has been done on evaluating path integration in the horizontal plane, but little is known about vertical movement (see 3 for virtual movement from vision alone). One reason for this is that traditional motion simulators have a small range of motion restricted mainly to the horizontal plane. Here we take advantage of a motion simulator 8-9 with a large range of motion to assess whether path integration is similar between horizontal and vertical planes. The relative contributions of inertial and visual cues for path navigation were also assessed.
16 observers sat upright in a seat mounted to the flange of a modified KUKA anthropomorphic robot arm. Sensory information was manipulated by providing visual (optic flow, limited lifetime star field), vestibular-kinaesthetic (passive self motion with eyes closed), or visual and vestibular-kinaesthetic motion cues. Movement trajectories in the horizontal, sagittal and frontal planes consisted of two segment lengths (1st: 0.4 m, 2nd: 1 m; &plusmn;0.24 m/s2 peak acceleration). The angle of the two segments was either 45&deg; or 90&deg;. Observers pointed back to their origin by moving an arrow that was superimposed on an avatar presented on the screen.
Observers were more likely to underestimate angle size for movement in the horizontal plane compared to the vertical planes. In the frontal plane observers were more likely to overestimate angle size while there was no such bias in the sagittal plane. Finally, observers responded slower when answering based on vestibular-kinaesthetic information alone. Human path integration based on vestibular-kinaesthetic information alone thus takes longer than when visual information is present. That pointing is consistent with underestimating and overestimating the angle one has moved through in the horizontal and vertical planes respectively, suggests that the neural representation of self-motion through space is non-symmetrical which may relate to the fact that humans experience movement mostly within the horizontal plane.

An efficient way to gain insight into how humans navigate themselves in three dimensions is described. The method takes advantage of a motion simulator capable of moving observers in ways unattainable by traditional simulators. Results confirm that movement in the horizontal plane is underestimated, while vertical movement is overestimated.

Path integration is a process in which self-motion is integrated over time to obtain an estimate of one's current position relative to a starting point 1. ...

Neuroscience

Three Dimensional Vestibular Ocular Reflex Testing Using a Six Degrees of Freedom Motion Platform

The vestibular organ is a sensor that measures angular and linear accelerations with six degrees of freedom (6DF). Complete or partial defects in the vestibular organ results in mild to severe equilibrium problems, such as vertigo, dizziness, oscillopsia, gait unsteadiness nausea and/or vomiting. A good and frequently used measure to quantify gaze stabilization is the gain, which is defined as the magnitude of compensatory eye movements with respect to imposed head movements. To test vestibular function more fully one has to realize that 3D VOR ideally generates compensatory ocular rotations not only with a magnitude (gain) equal and opposite to the head rotation but also about an axis that is co-linear with the head rotation axis (alignment). Abnormal vestibular function thus results in changes in gain and changes in alignment of the 3D VOR response.
Here we describe a method to measure 3D VOR using whole body rotation on a 6DF motion platform. Although the method also allows testing translation VOR responses 1, we limit ourselves to a discussion of the method to measure 3D angular VOR. In addition, we restrict ourselves here to description of data collected in healthy subjects in response to angular sinusoidal and impulse stimulation.
Subjects are sitting upright and receive whole-body small amplitude sinusoidal and constant acceleration impulses. Sinusoidal stimuli (f = 1 Hz, A = 4&deg;) were delivered about the vertical axis and about axes in the horizontal plane varying between roll and pitch at increments of 22.5&deg; in azimuth. Impulses were delivered in yaw, roll and pitch and in the vertical canal planes. Eye movements were measured using the scleral search coil technique 2. Search coil signals were sampled at a frequency of 1 kHz.
The input-output ratio (gain) and misalignment (co-linearity) of the 3D VOR were calculated from the eye coil signals 3.
Gain and co-linearity of 3D VOR depended on the orientation of the stimulus axis. Systematic deviations were found in particular during horizontal axis stimulation. In the light the eye rotation axis was properly aligned with the stimulus axis at orientations 0&deg; and 90&deg; azimuth, but gradually deviated more and more towards 45&deg; azimuth.
The systematic deviations in misalignment for intermediate axes can be explained by a low gain for torsion (X-axis or roll-axis rotation) and a high gain for vertical eye movements (Y-axis or pitch-axis rotation (see Figure 2). Because intermediate axis stimulation leads a compensatory response based on vector summation of the individual eye rotation components, the net response axis will deviate because the gain for X- and Y-axis are different.
In darkness the gain of all eye rotation components had lower values. The result was that the misalignment in darkness and for impulses had different peaks and troughs than in the light: its minimum value was reached for pitch axis stimulation and its maximum for roll axis stimulation.
Case Presentation
Nine subjects participated in the experiment. All subjects gave their informed consent. The experimental procedure was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Erasmus University Medical Center and adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki for research involving human subjects.
Six subjects served as controls. Three subjects had a unilateral vestibular impairment due to a vestibular schwannoma. The age of control subjects (six males and three females) ranged from 22 to 55 years. None of the controls had visual or vestibular complaints due to neurological, cardio vascular and ophthalmic disorders.
The age of the patients with schwannoma varied between 44 and 64 years (two males and one female). All schwannoma subjects were under medical surveillance and/or had received treatment by a multidisciplinary team consisting of an othorhinolaryngologist and a neurosurgeon of the Erasmus University Medical Center. Tested patients all had a right side vestibular schwannoma and underwent a wait and watch policy (Table 1; subjects N1-N3) after being diagnosed with vestibular schwannoma. Their tumors had been stabile for over 8-10 years on magnetic resonance imaging.

A method is described to measure three-dimensional vestibulo ocular reflexes (3D VOR) in humans using a six degrees of freedom (6DF) motion simulator. The gain and misalignment of the 3D angular VOR provide a direct measure of the quality of vestibular function. Representative data on healthy subjects are provided

The vestibular organ is a sensor that measures angular and linear accelerations with six degrees of freedom (6DF). Complete or partial defects in the ...

Assessing the Autonomic and Behavioral Effects of Passive Motion in Rats using Elevator Vertical Motion and Ferris-Wheel Rotation

The overall goal of this study is to assess the autonomic and behavioral effects of passive motion in rodents using the elevator vertical motion and Ferris-wheel rotation devices. These assays can help confirm the integrity and normal functioning of the autonomic nervous system. They are coupled to quantitative measures based on defecation counting, open-field examination, and balance beam crossing. The advantages of these assays are their simplicity, reproducibility, and quantitative behavioral measures. The limitations of these assays are that the autonomic reactions could be epiphenomena of non-vestibular disorders and that a functioning vestibular system is required. Examination of disorders such as motion sickness will be greatly aided by the detailed procedures of these assays.

Protocols are presented to assess the autonomic and behavioral effects of passive motion in rodents using elevator vertical motion and Ferris-wheel rotation.

The overall goal of this study is to assess the autonomic and behavioral effects of passive motion in rodents using the elevator vertical motion and ...

Using Unidirectional Rotations to Improve Vestibular System Asymmetry in Patients with Vestibular Dysfunction

The vestibular system provides information about head movement and mediates reflexes that contribute to balance control and gaze stabilization during daily activities. Vestibular sensors are located in the inner ear on both sides of the head and project to the vestibular nuclei in the brainstem. Vestibular dysfunction is often due to an asymmetry between input from the two sides. This results in asymmetrical neural inputs from the two ears, which can produce an illusion of rotation, manifested as vertigo. The vestibular system has an impressive capacity for compensation, which serves to rebalance how asymmetrical information from the sensory end organs on both sides is processed at the central level. To promote compensation, various rehabilitation programs are used in the clinic; however, they primarily use exercises that improve multisensory integration. Recently, visual-vestibular training has also been used to improve the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in animals with compensated unilateral lesions. Here, a new method is introduced for rebalancing the vestibular activity on both sides in human subjects. This method consists of five unidirectional rotations in the dark (peak velocity of 320&#176;/s) toward the weaker side. The efficacy of this method was shown in a sequential, double-blinded clinical trial in 16 patients with VOR asymmetry (measured by the directional preponderance in response to sinusoidal rotations). In most cases, VOR asymmetry decreased after a single session, reached normal values within the first two sessions in one week, and the effects lasted up to 6 weeks. The rebalancing effect is due to both an increase in VOR response from the weaker side and a decrease in response from the stronger side. The findings suggest that unidirectional rotation can be used as a supervised rehabilitation method to reduce VOR asymmetry in patients with longstanding vestibular dysfunction.

A new rehabilitation method is presented for rebalancing the vestibular system in patients with asymmetric responses, which consists of unidirectional rotations toward the weaker side. By directly modifying the vestibular pathway rather than enhancing the multisensory aspects of compensation, asymmetry can be normalized within 1-2 sessions and show lasting effects.

The vestibular system provides information about head movement and mediates reflexes that contribute to balance control and gaze stabilization during ...

Controlled Rotation of Human Observers in a Virtual Reality Environment

The low cost and availability of Virtual Reality (VR) systems have supported a recent acceleration of research into perception and behavior under more naturalistic, multisensory, and immersive conditions. One area of research that has particularly benefited from the use of VR systems is multisensory integration, for example, the integration of visual and vestibular cues to give rise to a sense of self-motion. For this reason, an accessible method for the controlled physical rotation of an observer in a virtual environment represents a useful innovation. This paper presents a method for automating the rotation of an office swivel chair along with a method for integrating that motion into a VR experience. Using an example experiment, it is demonstrated that the physical motion, thus produced, is integrated with the visual experience of an observer in a way consistent with expectations; high integration when the motion is congruent with the visual stimulus and low integration when the motion is incongruent.

The controlled physical rotation of a human observer is desirable for certain experimental, recreational, and educational applications. This paper outlines a method for converting an office swivel chair into a medium for controlled physical rotation in a virtual reality environment.

The low cost and availability of Virtual Reality (VR) systems have supported a recent acceleration of research into perception and behavior under more ...

Estimating Vestibular Perceptual Thresholds Using a Six-Degree-Of-Freedom Motion Platform

Vestibular perceptual thresholds refer to the motion intensity required to enable a participant to detect or discriminate a motion based on vestibular input. Using passive motion profiles provided by six degree-of-motion platforms, vestibular perceptual thresholds can be estimated for any kind of motion and thereby target each of the sub-components of the vestibular end-organ. Assessments of vestibular thresholds are clinically relevant as they complement diagnostic tools such as caloric irrigation, the head impulse test (HIT), or vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), which only provide information on sub-components of the vestibular system, but none of them allow for assessing all components. There are several methods with different advantages and disadvantages for estimating vestibular perceptual thresholds. In this article, we present a protocol using an adaptive staircase algorithm and sinusoidal motion profiles for an efficient estimation procedure. Adaptive staircase algorithms consider the response history to determine the peak velocity of the next stimuli and are the most commonly used algorithms in the vestibular domain. We further discuss the impact of motion frequency on vestibular perceptual thresholds.

In this article, we describe the methods, procedures, and technologies required to estimate vestibular perceptual thresholds using a six-degree-of-freedom motion platform.

Vestibular perceptual thresholds refer to the motion intensity required to enable a participant to detect or discriminate a motion based on vestibular ...

Long-term Sensory Conflict in Freely Behaving Mice

Long-term sensory conflict protocols are a valuable means of studying motor learning. The presented protocol produces a persistent sensory conflict for experiments aimed at studying long-term learning in mice. By permanently wearing a device fixed on their heads, mice are continuously exposed to a sensory mismatch between visual and vestibular inputs while freely moving in home cages. Therefore, this protocol readily enables the study of the visual system and multisensory interactions over an extended timeframe that would not be accessible otherwise. In addition to lowering the experimental costs of long-term sensory learning in naturally behaving mice, this approach accommodates the combination of in vivo and in vitro experiments. In the reported example, video-oculography is performed to quantify the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and optokinetic reflex (OKR) before and after learning. Mice exposed to this long-term sensory conflict between visual and vestibular inputs presented a strong VOR gain decrease but exhibited few OKR changes. Detailed steps of device assembly, animal care, and reflex measurements are hereby reported.

The presented protocol produces a persistent sensory conflict for experiments aimed at studying long-term learning. By permanently wearing a fixed device on their heads, mice are continuously exposed to a sensory mismatch between visual and vestibular inputs while freely moving in home cages.

Long-term sensory conflict protocols are a valuable means of studying motor learning. The presented protocol produces a persistent sensory conflict for ...

Assessment of Static Graviceptive Perception in the Roll-Plane using the Subjective Visual Vertical Paradigm

Vestibular disorders are among the most common syndromes in medicine. In recent years, new vestibular diagnostic systems have been introduced that allow the examination of all semicircular canals in the clinical setting. Assessment methods of the otolithic system, which is responsible for the perception of linear acceleration and perception of gravity, are far less in clinical use. There are several experimental approaches for measuring the perception of gravity. The most frequently used method is the determination of the subjective visual vertical. This is usually measured with the head in an upright position. We present here an assessment method for testing otolith function in the roll plane. The subjective visual vertical is measured in the head upright position as well as with head inclination of &#177; 15&#176; and &#177; 30&#176; in the roll plane. This extended functional paradigm is an easy-to-perform clinical test of otolith function and ensures increased information content for the detection of impaired graviceptive perception.

The perception of gravity is commonly determined by the subjective visual vertical in the head upright position. The additional assessment at head tilts of &#177; 15&#176; and &#177; 30&#176; in the roll plane ensures increased information content for the detection of impaired graviceptive perception.

Vestibular disorders are among the most common syndromes in medicine. In recent years, new vestibular diagnostic systems have been introduced that allow ...

Medicine

Virtual Prism Adaptation Therapy: Protocol for Validation in Healthy Adults

Hemispatial neglect is a common impairment after stroke. It is associated with poor functional and social outcomes. Therefore, an adequate intervention is imperative for the successful management of hemispatial neglect. However, the clinical use of various interventions is limited in real clinical practice. Prism adaptation therapy is one of the most evidence-based rehabilitation modalities to treat hemispatial neglect. To overcome any possible shortcoming that may occur with prism therapy, we developed a new system using immersive virtual reality and depth-sensing camera to create a virtual prism adaptation therapy (VPAT). To validate the VPAT system, we designed an experimental protocol investigating the behavioral errors and changes in cortical activation via the VPAT system. Cortical activation was measured by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The experiment consisted of four phases. All four included clicking, pointing or rest applied to right-handed healthy people. Clicking versus pointing was used for investigating the cortical region related with the gross motor task, and pointing with VPAT versus pointing without VPAT was used for investigating the cortical region associated with visuospatial perception. The preliminary results from four healthy participants showed that pointing errors by the VPAT system was similar to the conventional prism adaptation therapy. Further analysis with more participants and fNIRS data, as well as a study in patients with stroke may be required.

This experimental protocol demonstrates the use of virtual prism adaptation therapy (VPAT) in healthy adults and the association between VPAT and functional near infrared spectroscopy to determine the effect of VPAT on cortical activation. Results suggest that VPAT may be feasible and could induce similar behavioral adaptation as conventional prism adaptation therapy.

Hemispatial neglect is a common impairment after stroke. It is associated with poor functional and social outcomes. Therefore, an adequate intervention is ...

Measuring the Influence of Magnetic Vestibular Stimulation on Nystagmus, Self-Motion Perception, and Cognitive Performance in a 7T MRT

Strong magnetic fields induce dizziness, vertigo, and nystagmus due to Lorentz forces acting on the cupula in the semi-circular canals, an effect called magnetic vestibular stimulation (MVS). In this article, we present an experimental setup in a 7T MRT scanner (MRI scanner) that allows the investigation of the influence of strong magnetic fields on nystagmus as well as perceptual and cognitive responses. The strength of MVS is manipulated by altering the head positions of the participants. The orientation of the participants&#39; semicircular canals with respect to the static magnetic field is assessed by combining a 3D magnetometer and 3D constructive interference in steady-state (3D-CISS) images. This approach allows to account for intra- and inter-individual differences in participants&#8217; responses to MVS. In the future, MVS can be useful for clinical research, for example, in the investigation of compensatory processes in vestibular disorders. Furthermore, it could foster insights into the interplay between vestibular information and cognitive processes in terms of spatial cognition and the emergence of self-motion percepts under conflicting sensory information. In fMRI studies, MVS can elicit a possible confounding effect, especially in tasks influenced by vestibular information or in studies comparing vestibular patients with healthy controls.

In this article, we describe the experimental setup, material, and procedures to assess reflexive eye movements, self-motion perception, and cognitive tasks under magnetic vestibular stimulation, as well as the anatomical orientation of the vestibular organs, in a 7 Tesla Magnetic resonance tomography (7T-MRT) scanner.

Strong magnetic fields induce dizziness, vertigo, and nystagmus due to Lorentz forces acting on the cupula in the semi-circular canals, an effect called ...