Postural Precursors of Postboxing Motion Sickness in a Manual Aiming Task

We asked whether body sway during performance of a visual-manual task would differ between boxers who experienced post-match motion sickness and those who did not. Before and after boxing we measured standing body sway while participants performed a manual precision aiming task. After boxing, participants stated, yes/no, whether they were motion sick; they also reported motion sickness symptoms, and concussion-related symptoms. Seven of thirteen boxers reported motion sickness after boxing. We compared boxers who reported post-boxing motion sickness versus those who did not. Body sway before boxing differed between boxers who reported post-bout motion sickness and those who did not. Immediately after boxing, motion sickness symptoms and concussion-related symptoms were elevated among boxers who stated that they were motion sick. The results suggest that patterns of body sway may be related to individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness and concussion-like symptoms in adult male boxers, such that objective measurements of body sway might be used to predict susceptibility in individuals.