Teorinfo ~ Have you ever felt dizzy and nauseous while reading in a moving car? What do you think is the cause?
Our body has a central nervous system and a peripheral nervous system. Let’s look deeper into the central nervous system. It consists of 12 cranial nerves, nerves that come directly from the brain, and spinal nerves.
The vestibulocochlear nerve, in simple terms, is the nerve that regulates the vestibular system, which controls balance and acceleration, and the cochlear system, which holds a hearing.
Because our topic in this article is about motion sickness. When you are in a vehicle or motion sickness, it’s a good idea to first understand the vestibular system.
This system has 3 organs, namely the semicircular canal (or canal semicircular), which regulates angular acceleration, the utricle and saccule, which holds linear acceleration, where the utricle for front and back movement, right and left, or a mixture of both, and the saccule for up and down.
In the semicircular canal, 3 canals are responsible for head movement, namely the horizontal semicircular canal for turning right and left, the superior semicircular canal for up and down as we nod in agreement, and the posterior semicircular canal for tilting the head to the right and left. Like when we want to touch our head to the shoulder.
Inside these canals, there is a fluid called endolymph. When we move our head, the endolymph in the canal corresponding to movement will flow into parts of the vestibular system called the ampulla.
Inside the ampulla are hair cells called sensory receptors that convey messages to the brain about the movements performed. Meanwhile, there are crystals called otoconia in the utricle and saccule that connect the mechanical power to the hair cells and alert the brain to the field of movement that we do.
An example for utricle is when we are in a car that does not move because of red light, and starts moving when the light is green. Likewise, when a moving vehicle stops at a red light.
As for the saccule, imagine someone jumping. In addition, both also tell our brain about the position of the head when the head is not moving. Back to the question, why do we get nauseous and vomit when reading in a moving car?.
The reason is that apart from going through the inside of the ear, our brain also receives sensory information through the eyes, muscles, and even joints. Without movement, the sensory information conveyed to the head would match.
Our eyes will provide this information to the brain. However, we are in a moving car. The inner ear that senses body movement is in a moving vehicle, giving information to the brain that we are moving.
As a result, the information received does not match, and symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, and vomiting can appear. That’s the process that happens when we get drunk.
Being in the front of the car can help reduce symptoms rather than sitting in the back. We can also look into distant sights instead of looking at near, stationary objects.
