Motion sickness is a common disease encountered in traditional vehicles as well as autonomous vehicles, which will negatively affect user acceptance. To make clear the pathogenesis of motion sickness, this study focused on drivers’ brain activity changes before and after motion sickness happens. Based on the six-degree-of-freedom driving simulator and noninvasive functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a database containing driving operation data synchronized with drivers’ brain activity record from 52 participants was collected under straight and curved driving conditions. The correlation analysis between motion sickness and changes of cerebral oxyhemoglobin concentration in the cerebral cortex was carried out based on this database. Results suggest that brain activity associated with motion sickness may differ under different driving conditions. However, the emergence of motion sickness responses is related to the occipital lobe under both driving conditions. Experimental results corroborate with several theoretical hypothesis about motion sickness in neuroscience. Consequently, this study proposes a new approach to research the mechanism of the correlation between motion sickness and cerebral cortex activity, which will contribute to developing the driving assistance system for preventing or alleviating motion sickness in autonomous vehicles.

中文翻译：

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使用 fNIRS 分析与晕车相关的大脑活动：驾驶模拟器研究

晕车是传统汽车和自动驾驶汽车中常见的疾病，会对用户的接受度产生负面影响。为明确晕车的发病机制，本研究重点研究晕车前后驾驶员大脑活动的变化。基于六自由度驾驶模拟器和无创功能近红外光谱（fNIRS），在直线和曲线驾驶条件下收集了一个包含与驾驶员大脑活动记录同步的驾驶操作数据的数据库。基于该数据库进行晕动病与大脑皮层脑氧合血红蛋白浓度变化的相关性分析。结果表明，在不同的驾驶条件下，与晕动病相关的大脑活动可能会有所不同。然而，晕车反应的出现与两种驾驶条件下的枕叶有关。实验结果证实了神经科学中关于晕动病的几个理论假设。因此，本研究提出了一种研究晕车与大脑皮层活动相关机制的新方法，这将有助于开发用于预防或减轻自动驾驶汽车晕车的驾驶辅助系统。