Acta Biologica Hungarica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 53: Issue 4
The psychophysiology of nausea
Author: R. M. Stern 1
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  • 1 Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802, USA
Pages:
589–600
Online Publication Date:
19 Jul 2005
Publication Date:
01 Nov 2002
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/abiol.53.2002.4.17
Keywords:
autonomic nervous system; autonomic nervous system; autonomic nervous system; Nausea; chemotherapy; motion sickness; gastric dysrhythmia
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Nausea is an unpleasant sensation usually referred to the stomach and sometimes followed by vomiting. Little is known about the subjective aspects of nausea because like pain and fatigue, it is a private sensation. We conceive of nausea as a complex control mechanism that signals us when not to eat. Our research in the areas of motion sickness and chemotherapy has led us to propose that we each have a dynamic threshold for nausea, which depends on the interaction of inherent factors and more changeable psychological factors, and that this threshold effects the individual's cognitive appraisal of both the nauseogenic stimulus and his/her bodily change in response to the nauseogenic stimulus. Inherent factors that are described are age, gender and race; psychological factors that are included are anxiety, expectation, anticipation and adaptation. The physiological responses that have been found to accompany nausea include an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity, a decrease in parasympathetic activity, an increase of abnormal dysrhythmic gastric activity, and an increase in plasma vasopressin. It is concluded that beneficial selective reduction of nausea will depend on a greater knowledge of the interaction of the psychological and physiological variables.

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Cover Acta Biologica Hungarica
Acta Biologica Hungarica
Print ISSN:
0236-5383
Online ISSN:
1588-256X

Senior editors

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Elekes, Károly

Editorial Board

    1. Csányi, Vilmos (Göd)
    1. Dudits, Dénes (Szeged)
    1. Falus, András (Budapest)
    1. Fischer, Ernő (Pécs)
    1. Gábriel, Róbert (Pécs)
    1. Gulya, Károly (Szeged)
    1. Gulyás, Balázs (Stockholm)
    1. Hajós, Ferenc (Budapest)
    1. Hámori, József (Budapest)
    1. Heszky, László (Gödöllő)
    1. Hideg, Éva (Szeged)
    1. E. Ito (Sanuki)
    1. Janda, Tibor (Martonvásár)
    1. Kavanaugh, Michael P. (Missoula)
    1. Kása, Péter (Szeged)
    1. Klein, Éva (Stockholm)
    1. Kovács, János (Budapest)
    1. Brigitte Mauch-Mani (Neuchâtel)
    1. Nässel, Dick R. (Stockholm)
    1. Nemcsók, János (Szeged)
    1. Péczely, Péter (Gödöllő)
    1. Roberts, D. F. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
    1. Sakharov, Dimitri A. (Moscow)
    1. Singh, Meharvan (Fort Worth)
    1. Sipiczky, Mátyás (Debrecen)
    1. Szeberényi, József (Pécs)
    1. Székely, György (Debrecen)
    1. Tari, Irma (Szeged)
    1. Vágvölgyi, Csaba (Szeged),
    1. L. Zaborszky (Newark)

 

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Acta Biologica Hungarica
Language English
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ISSN 0236-5383 (Print)
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