Listen to ‘Sound Spice’ for Drug-Free Motion Sickness Relief

The usual fixes for motion sickness may not work for everyone. Ginger, weird wristbands, and Dramamine that turns you into a zombie. But now, thanks to some scientists in Japan, the cure might be as easy as listening to a single audio tone for only a minute.

Researchers at Nagoya University, led by Takumi Kagawa and Masashi Kato, examined the inner ear’s vestibular system—specifically a tiny structure called the utricle, which is basically your body’s internal level tool. When it gets confused by mixed signals from what we’re seeing with our eyes and the sensations the rest of our body is experiencing, we call that motion sickness.

A New Cure for Motion Sickness Might Be Available Soon

The team discovered that a tone at 100 Hz and a loudness of 65.9 dBa, which isn’t too far off a frequency from the generic background noises of life, stimulates the utricle in a way that helps prevent the brain from losing balance. The researchers are so confident that the tone can alleviate motion sickness that they’ve trademarked it under the name “sound spice.”

Here’s an example I found on YouTube of a 100 Hz audio tone, though the decibel level is far lower than what the researchers prescribe:

They tested it on mice first, blasting the, uh, Sound Spice, into their little ears. After five minutes, the mice were put through what amounts to a rodent rollercoaster and then forced to walk a balance beam. The mice that were pretreated with the Sound Spice showed fewer effects of motion sickness than the control group that wasn’t pretreated.

Humans got the same treatment and were thrown into swings, driving simulators, and actual cars. One minute of Sound Spice beforehand, and their bodies stayed way cooler under pressure compared to the poor control group, who got nothing but knowledge of the show for it.