Abstract | Much of the content of this book concerns the characteristics of the person who has become ill as a consequence of vestibular or related disease. By contrast, we discuss the re-sponse of the normal person in environments beyond everyday, pedestrian experience. This dichotomy could be thought of ‘The sick person in the healthy environment versus the healthy person in a sick environment’. We first deal with motion sickness, a universal expe-rience which may become a problem in the susceptible individual or in extreme environ-ments. Secondly we address the problem of disorientation. Spatial disorientation is familiar in the specialized occupations of pilots, astronauts, and divers. However, we have observed similar problems in users of road vehicles which have been severe enough to have attracted clinical attention. |
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