Mechanism
The exact mechanism for the induction of the sopite syndrome is still unknown; however, a leading theory asserts that the sopite syndrome (and perhaps motion sickness in general) is somehow related to the reticular formation, an area of the brainstem associated with arousal. A study of motion-induced effects on the P50 potential (a measure of arousal) showed that subjects exposed to motion environments experience decreased sensory gating, which involves the filtering of information in the brain. In the case of Space Motion Sickness, the unweighting of otolith organs can lead to a sensory mismatch between the visual, vestibular, and somatosensory systems. Motion studies in which the subjects lacked vestibular systems did not experience symptoms of the sopite syndrome or other manifestations of motion sickness.
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