This seems quite promising: an effective treatment for a problem that frequently assails many people, and a treatment which is so simple and easy to apply.
In fact, it seems so promising, that it raises my hackles of suspicion. I would very much like to see other researchers replicate this. I am automatically more skeptical than I would be of most research because if humming a certain note were an effective treatment for motion sickness, then it would be rather surprising that people had not already discovered this property -- possibly just by listening to various pieces of music.
Just as research which suggests a surprising outcome or one inconsistent with existing theories must meet a higher bar, so too does research which suggests a simple cure that it was already possible for people to stumble across.
I was on a ROUGH ferry ride between some islands in Southeast Asia once. It was packed and nearly everyone succumbed to puking. Even if it's minimally effective, I feel like playing this over the speakers in the common areas would have been welcomed.
If a specific tone can decrease the incidence of nausea and vomiting I wouldn't be surprised if rough seas combined with typical diesel engine sounds (frequency / harmonics - whatever the correct terminology is) increases the incidence of nausea and vomiting.
This is a university press release, so they first refer to a registered trademark, which I assume means they're trying to make money off it through licensing agreements:
> a unique sound called 'sound spice®'
Only at the very bottom of the release do they actually give any technical details:
> a pure tone at 100 Hz
The linked study gives more details:
> 1-min exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz
Probably because dB SPL doesn't match A-weighted human perceptual audiogram, so they're being specific? (I get that you could just translate it to dB SPL but still.)
Kind of feel like it'll be hard to replicate the volume accurately, even when assuming headphones. The maximum output would depend both on the phone itself and the headphones. Wonder how specific it would have to be, if you'll get the same results with different volumes.
Unless you live in the USA, in which case that sound meter now costs X+$100 if it gets here before June, x+$200 if it gets here in june or later lol.
But that’s fine, you can get an American made one for about ….hmm. Can’t seem to find one actually made in the USA that doesn’t say “contact us for a quote” or something like that.
I’m all for repatriating manufacturing, and a good plan might very well involve tariffs rolled in progressively over several years, giving businesses a predictable time table to shift supply chains and invest in manufacturing capacity to fill those gaps.
But all that has happened is the price of American innovation just went through the roof for small companies and startups, while big businesses will barely be affected because the cost of gadgets and parts is negligible as a fraction of their R&D budget. For many startups it’s nearly 100 percent.
Chaos is not good for business and multiplies risks at their root, which gets magnified by orders of magnitude in financial terms when looking at investment and finance.
100:1 bets with 1000:1 odds just becomes 100:1 bets with 100:1 odds, a bet no longer worth taking.
My friend has pretty extreme motion sickness that prevents us from taking boats or buses or even sometimes taxis when traveling together. It's kind of debilitating and not that uncommon I think. More effort ought to be put into finding a cure. (I'm skeptical of this one, but worth a shot I guess.) Would be nice for VR as well.
For those not wanting to click through a bunch of links, here is a quote of the results of the study. TL;DR a sine wave of 100Hz at conversation level.
> Results: The effect of short-term (≤5 min) exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz on motion sickness was investigated in mice and humans. A mouse study showed a long-lasting (≥120 min) alleviative effect on shaking-mediated exacerbated beam test scores by 5-min exposure to a pure tone of 85 dBZ at 100 Hz, which was ex vivo determined as a sound activating vestibular function, before shaking. Human studies further showed that 1-min exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz before shaking improved the increased envelope areas in posturography caused by the shakings of a swing, a driving simulator and a vehicle. Driving simulator-mediated activation of sympathetic nerves assessed by the heart rate variable (HRV) and vehicle-mediated increased scores of the MSAQ were improved by pure tone exposure before the shaking.
Hope this works and VR games start playing it before motion intense parts of the games. I have built up a tolerance for the most part but some games just leave me motion sick if I am not careful.
"The brown note (sometimes brown tone or frequency) is a hypothetical infrasonic frequency capable of causing fecal incontinence by creating acoustic resonance in the human bowel. Considered an urban myth, the name is a metonym for the common color of human faeces. Attempts to demonstrate the existence of a "brown note" using sound waves transmitted through the air have failed.
Frequencies supposedly involved are between 5 and 9 Hz, which are below the lower frequency limit of human hearing. High-power sound waves below 20 Hz are felt in the body."
I'm gonna wait for a much better study reproducing this before I put any stock in it, personally.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdi0jQtMqV8&pp
In fact, it seems so promising, that it raises my hackles of suspicion. I would very much like to see other researchers replicate this. I am automatically more skeptical than I would be of most research because if humming a certain note were an effective treatment for motion sickness, then it would be rather surprising that people had not already discovered this property -- possibly just by listening to various pieces of music.
Just as research which suggests a surprising outcome or one inconsistent with existing theories must meet a higher bar, so too does research which suggests a simple cure that it was already possible for people to stumble across.
> a unique sound called 'sound spice®'
Only at the very bottom of the release do they actually give any technical details:
> a pure tone at 100 Hz
The linked study gives more details:
> 1-min exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz
That's about the level of normal human speech.
But that’s fine, you can get an American made one for about ….hmm. Can’t seem to find one actually made in the USA that doesn’t say “contact us for a quote” or something like that.
I’m all for repatriating manufacturing, and a good plan might very well involve tariffs rolled in progressively over several years, giving businesses a predictable time table to shift supply chains and invest in manufacturing capacity to fill those gaps.
But all that has happened is the price of American innovation just went through the roof for small companies and startups, while big businesses will barely be affected because the cost of gadgets and parts is negligible as a fraction of their R&D budget. For many startups it’s nearly 100 percent.
Chaos is not good for business and multiplies risks at their root, which gets magnified by orders of magnitude in financial terms when looking at investment and finance.
100:1 bets with 1000:1 odds just becomes 100:1 bets with 100:1 odds, a bet no longer worth taking.
Sad.
They are just trying to alleviate motion sickness from those old suspensions.
For mild motion sickness from VR, I like to chew ginger root. Ginger candies are good too, especially if you don't like straight ginger root.
> Results: The effect of short-term (≤5 min) exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz on motion sickness was investigated in mice and humans. A mouse study showed a long-lasting (≥120 min) alleviative effect on shaking-mediated exacerbated beam test scores by 5-min exposure to a pure tone of 85 dBZ at 100 Hz, which was ex vivo determined as a sound activating vestibular function, before shaking. Human studies further showed that 1-min exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz before shaking improved the increased envelope areas in posturography caused by the shakings of a swing, a driving simulator and a vehicle. Driving simulator-mediated activation of sympathetic nerves assessed by the heart rate variable (HRV) and vehicle-mediated increased scores of the MSAQ were improved by pure tone exposure before the shaking.
"The brown note (sometimes brown tone or frequency) is a hypothetical infrasonic frequency capable of causing fecal incontinence by creating acoustic resonance in the human bowel. Considered an urban myth, the name is a metonym for the common color of human faeces. Attempts to demonstrate the existence of a "brown note" using sound waves transmitted through the air have failed. Frequencies supposedly involved are between 5 and 9 Hz, which are below the lower frequency limit of human hearing. High-power sound waves below 20 Hz are felt in the body."