Joyful and soft music reduces driving motion sickness, study finds

Researchers in China say a minute of upbeat or gentle music can substantially reduce the symptoms of carsickness, according to a study that induced motion sickness in a driving simulator and monitored participants with electroencephalogram caps. The experiment, reported in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience and led by Dr Qizong Yue of Southwest University, found joyful and soft music reduced self‑reported motion sickness by roughly 57 and 56.7 percent respectively, while sad music was slightly less effective than resting with no audio at all.

The team first screened 40 volunteers on multiple simulated routes to identify the settings most likely to provoke sickness, then selected 30 people who reported moderate prior susceptibility for the main experiment. Participants completed baseline EEG recordings, performed a driving task designed to provoke visual vestibular conflict, and rated their nausea and other symptoms. After the induced episode, four groups listened to different music styles for 60 seconds, one group rested in silence as a natural recovery control, and a baseline group had their simulators stopped at the first sign of discomfort to provide comparative EEG data.