Countermeasures to Reduce Sensorimotor Impairment and Space Motion Sickness Resulting From Altered Gravity Levels

Countermeasures to Reduce Sensorimotor Impairment and Space Motion Sickness Resulting From Altered Gravity Levels

The investigators will study adaptation of motion perception and manual control in altered gravity, including the effects of a drug (promethazine). The investigators will also study whether promethazine affects motion perceptual thresholds.

Adaptation to altered gravity has been of concern from the earliest reports of space motion sickness, through the Apollo exploration era, and into current planning of exploration missions. The proposed research program takes a new approach which could lead to an effective, practical and acceptable protocol for preadapting astronauts to space flight. By using the gravito-inertial alterations possible with centrifugation in different body orientations the investigators will quantify an individual's sensory adaptation capability and use it to predict and to minimize the consequences of movement in any other gravity environment - eventually including weightlessness. The investigators will also study whether a drug (promethazine) affects motion perception and motion sickness.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subjects must be in general good health

Exclusion Criteria:

• Anyone who is not generally in good general health does not qualify
• Cardiovascular disease
• Severe diabetes
• Respiratory condition (e.g. asthma or emphysema)
• Narrow angle glaucoma
• Prostatic hypertrophy
• Gastrointestinal disorders