Changes in the gastrointestinal electric pattern to motion sickness in susceptibles and insusceptibles during fasting.

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 gastro-intestinal 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.