Going on a long road trip can be difficult for some people who experience motion sickness. However, researchers from the Imperial College London have found a solution for it and it involves zapping one's brain.
The researchers published their study in the journal Neurology on Sept. 4 and it suggested a new treatment still in development that could someday bring a cure to motion sickness.
The exact cause of motion sickness is yet to be identified but many scientists theorize that the condition may come from mixed messages sent by the ears and eyes to the brain when in motion.
Some people can handle it pretty fairly and get over the condition rather quickly, while some don't take it well that they could experience severe nausea and cold sweats, the institution's news release stated.
The treatment involves numbing the area in the brain responsible for detecting motion with mild electrical stimulation.
With this, the brain will be less "confused" with the mixed messages, thereby reducing motion sickness symptoms.
To test the new treatment, researchers recruited volunteers to wear electrodes positioned on their head for a good 10 minutes.
These volunteers were then placed in a motorized chair that rotates and tilts, mimicking movement experienced in roller coasters and boats.
After the tests, it was found that the volunteers didn't feel as much nausea and they tend to easily recover.
Project leader Qadeer Arshad hopes that the team's treatment will be incorporated into smartphones in five to ten years' time.
"We hope it might even integrate with a mobile phone, which would be able to deliver the small amount of electricity required via the headphone jack," Arshad said in a statement.
It may take several years for such application to be developed, but Arshad hopes that when the time comes, people can simply get a device that fights motion sickness straight from the pharmacy.
