It was discovered in the context of aircraft pilots who undergo training for extended periods of time in flight simulators.
Navy psychologists performed further study on the pilots who participated in these simulator exercises, and found that 28 out of 36 respondents to their evaluations experienced sickness.
"The SS usually occurred in the first ten minutes of a training session and frequently lasted for several hours afterward.
Optical flow patterns generated in virtual environments typically induce perception of self-motion (i.e., vection).
Sensory conflict theory holds that, when this perception of self-motion is not corroborated by inertial forces transmitted through the vestibular system, simulator sickness is likely to occur.
Thus, sensory conflict theory predicts that keeping the visual and vestibular inputs in agreement can reduce the likelihood of simulator sickness experienced by users.
Experiments have measured markers of the onset of postural instability, and found that it precedes signs and symptoms of simulator sickness.
Additional possibilities for elicitation of motion sickness in general (including simulator sickness) include gaze destabilization, which is disrupted if the vestibuloocular reflex gain in the nervous system is altered, moving patterns[3] of visual stimuli, and motions that stimulate the otoliths and semicircular canals of the inner ear.
It is unclear whether or not these stimuli are encountered in significant amounts in a simulator to induce sickness in the expert pilots.
Studies conducted independently by the US Navy, US Coast Guard, and US Army during the 1980s all came to the same conclusion: the greater experience of the pilot, the higher the likelihood of sickness symptoms during simulation training exercises.
[5] The report also found that longer periods between sessions of flight simulation training resulted in greater probability of detrimental symptoms appearing increased.
This adaptation occurs within the psyche of the individual with repeated, controlled exposures, without any required alteration to the simulator.
Nonetheless, the subscales provide differential information about participants' experience of symptoms and are useful for determining the particular pattern of discomfort produced by a given simulator.
[8] Many video gamers, notably the late John Peter "TotalBiscuit" Bain,[9] report motion sickness while playing games with a narrow field of view (FOV).