Motion Sickness Makes Your Brain Think It's Being Poisoned

Posted: Aug 17 2016, 8:01am CDT | by , in News | Latest Science News


Motion Sickness Makes Your Brain Think It&#039;s Being Poisoned
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It is a common problem today, that oppressive feeling of car sickness that makes taking road trips impossible. However, motion sickness isn't something to be mad at - it is a sign that your brain is working like it should.

Recent studies have found that car sickness leads your brain to think that it is experiencing a sudden poisoning. It isn't the fact that you are actually poisoned, but rather that you are getting conflicting messages about your environment. The reason we throw up is because of the neurotoxins that build up in our systems.

So why are our brains confused?

Experts believe that any kind of motion sickness is brought about because humans have only recently started in travelling in things and our brains haven't adapted to boats, buses, cars, and trains. Despite the fact that we are moving, our senses tell us that our bodies are still standing still while our brains know we are moving.

"As soon as the brain gets confused by anything like that, it says, oh, I don't know what to do, so just be sick, just in case," neuroscientist Dean Burnett from Cardiff University in the UK explains to Melissa Dahl at Science of Us. "And as a result, we get motion sickness because the brain's constantly worried about being poisoned."

Staring out the window can help because the brain then recognizes the movement. Reading a book, a map, or your phone will make it all worse because it convinces your brain you aren't moving. Driving also helps because you are visually aware of what is going on and you are in control of the movement.

Scientists aren't clear as to why some of us are affected and some of us aren't. Or why people grow out of their car sickness.

Hopefully with this knowledge, they will be able to create a cure.

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Noel passion is to write about geek culture.




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