Cyber- and motion sickness are debilitating for many people, limiting both travel opportunities and the use of new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. These forms of sickness are due to nauseogenic sensory mis-match (NSM). For cybersickness, e.g. using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset at home, the body is stationary, but the eyes perceive visually-induced motion when playing games. For motion sickness, e.g. reading a book in a car, the eyes see no visual motion cues, but the vestibular system perceives vehicle movement, causing sensory mismatch. Cybersickness affects more than 50% of people use who AR and VR headsets. Motion sickness affects 30% of travellers in all forms of transport, with even more getting sick if they use AR or VR as a passenger. To mitigate the effects of NSM, PhotoMod will demonstrate the efficacy of a novel transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) technique using near-infrared light. This is delivered by LEDs on the scalp shining into the brain, focused on the human vestibular network (HVN) to create neural entrainment.
Our novel method extends work on the ERC ViAjeRo project which used transcranial alternating current stimulation to create entrainment in the HVN. We use this to synchronize the phase information of endogenous neural oscilla-tions associated with NSM in the HVN to an external phase stimulus generated by tACS, which mirrors healthy phase information. We have found very significant benefits with this method, with a ~70% decrease in cyber- and motion sickness. However, tACS has many drawbacks for commercial application. tPBM overcomes all of these as it is: more precise, safer, more comfortable and cheaper. In PhotoMod, we will develop a new device and protocol to deliver tPBM in a commercial form, then test it as a mitigation for cybersickness at home and for motion sickness on the road. The final result will be a commercialisable wearable system that can mitigate the effects of NSM across a wide area of applications.
Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a non-invasive technique that uses light to stimulate biological processes and has shown promise for both therapeutic and cognitive enhancement applications. The discovery of PBM dates back to Endre Mester in 1967, who observed that low-level laser treatment intended for cancer in rats unexpectedly promoted hair regrowth in shaven mice (Hamblin, 2016; Mester et al., 1968). Initially termed Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT), the technique's applicability broadened with the introduction of near-infrared (NIR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This led to the modern term photobiomodulation (PBM), with growing interest in its use for neural stimulation, known as transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) (Zhu et al., 2025) and its applications as a therapeutic approach in clinical populations, including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease (Hamblin, 2019; Montazeri et al., 2021; Salehpour et al., 2018). It has also been proposed as a method for cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals (Shetty et al., 2023).
