Experimental Motion Sickness in Dogs: Role of Abdominal Visceral Afferents

Abstract

Motion sickness was experimentally induced in dogs by means of a standardized swinging procedure. Subsequently, 21 susceptible dogs were chosen in this series for abdominal sympathectomy and/or abdominal vagotomy. Over a period of about 6 months, these operated animals were retested several times, and it was found that the majority of them (67%) showed increased resistance to swing sickness to a greater or lesser degree. However, because of the relatively high percentage of the remaining dogs which showed no alteration of their swing sensitivity, it is concluded that the visceral afferents from the gastrointestinal tract play no paramount role in experimental motion sickness.