To promote safety of astronauts and pilots requires learning to adapt in high stress environments. Adverse reactions to a stressful environment may include motion sickness, which can lead to failure in executing mission tasks, and possibly death. The Psychophysiological Research Lab at NASA ARC studies the eOects of altered gravity on human physiology to maximize the health and safety of humans in space.
Dr. Patricia Cowings at NASA ARC has invented a method called the Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE), which is a training system that teaches individuals how to control their physiological responses to facilitate adaptation to stressful conditions (e.g., motion sickness stimuli).
The purpose of the current study is transferring the application of AFTE to the Navy for treating air sickness in military aviators. Tests are conducted onsite at NAMRU-D with NASA staO overseeing the research. The study protocol involves subjecting test participants to a rotating chair test (Day 1) to assess their initial susceptibility to motion sickness. This is followed by 4, 30-minute AFTE training sessions (Days 2-5), and then a final rotation chair test (Day 6) to evaluate training eOects on motion sickness tolerance.
Results from one test subject will demonstrate that AFTE is an eOective countermeasure for mitigating motion sickness. Data collected from rotational chair tests and AFTE training sessions show that the test subject was able to control their physiological responses, significantly increase their tolerance, and experience fewer symptoms on their final rotational chair test.