The data that support the findings of this study will be made freely available upon publication on the Open Science Framework: Weech, S., Wall, T., & Barnett-Cowan, M. (2018). Reduction of cybersickness during and immediately following noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation. Retrieved from osf.io/md36t/ Acknowledgements: This research was supported by grants to MBC from Oculus Research, the Ontario Research Fund and Canadian Foundation for Innovation's John R. Evans Leaders Fund, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The industry sponsor had no influence in the design or execution of the current research. All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests. Author Contributions: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Séamas Weech and Travis Wall.

Informed male volunteers completed maximal isometric knee extension efforts under each of three contraction conditions: 1) voluntary, 2) electrical stimulation (ES) only, and 3) superimposed (ES superimposed onto voluntary). Ten subjects completed the three contraction conditions using each of the following current formats: 1) asymmetrical biphasic rectangular wave, 2) asymmetrical biphasic spike wave, and 3) symmetrical monophasic square wave. Under the voluntary and the superimposed contraction conditions no significant differences in mean torque were observed between the three current formats. However, under the ES contraction condition, the torque associated with the symmetrical monophasic square wave was significantly less than that associated with the other two current formats. As well, the torque associated with the asymmetrical biphasic spike wave was significantly less than that associated with the asymmetrical biphasic rectangular wave format. No significant difference was observed between the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and the superimposed contraction conditions for the groups receiving the asymmetrical biphasic spike and the symmetrical monophasic square wave current formats, or between all three contraction conditions for the group receiving the asymmetrical biphasic rectangular wave format. However, the ES condition was associated with significantly less torque than were the MVC and the superimposed conditions for the asymmetrical biphasic spike and the symmetrical monophasic square wave formats. In response to a posttest questionnaire, 18 of 30 subjects felt that the ES contraction produced greater torque than did MVC, and 26 subjects selected the superimposed condition as having produced greater torque than the ES condition. The different current formats, resulting in different levels of sensation and preception, and the different output capabilities of each electrical stimulator are considered to have been jointly responsible for the ES only torque discrepancies. It is suggested that ES does not recruit more motor units, resulting in a greater force of contraction, than are recruited under MVC.J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1984;5(6):324-331.

This paper aims to develop a systemic perspective of the mechanics of an online memetic warfare campaign. The paper uses as its case study the #DraftOurDaughters campaign, a viral memetic campaign conducted in October 2016 as part of the U.S. presidential election campaign. #DraftOurDaughters was organised and produced by anonymous members of the Internet board 4chan, and then deployed to wider audiences on platforms such as Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. This process is documented from inception to completion, capturing the swarm like topology of 4chan’s /pol/ forum, and the logistics of the swarm’s rapid prototyping, coordination, production and dissemination of content. Through examining these phenomena, this paper also provides perspective on the manifestation of collaborative design practice in online participatory spaces.

The mechanism underlying cybersickness during virtual reality (VR) exposure is still poorly understood, although research has highlighted a causal role for visual-vestibular sensory conflict. Recently established methods for reducing cybersickness include galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) to mimic absent vestibular cues in VR, or vibration of the vestibular organs to add noise to the sensory modality. Here, we examined if applying noise to the vestibular system using noisy-current GVS also affects sickness severity in VR. Participants were exposed to one of two VR games that were classified as either moderate or intense with respect to their nauseogenic effects. The VR content lasted for 50 minutes and was broken down into 3 blocks: 30 minutes of gameplay during exposure to either noisy GVS (±1750 μA) or sham stimulation (0 μA), and 10 minutes of gameplay before and after this block. We characterized the effects of noisy GVS in terms of post-minus-pre-exposure cybersickness scores. For the intense VR content, we found a main effect of noisy vestibular stimulation. Participants reported lower cybersickness scores during and directly after exposure to GVS. However, this difference was quickly extinguished (∼3-6 min) after further exposure to VR, indicating that sensory adaptation did not persist after stimulation was terminated. In contrast, there were no differences between the sham and GVS group for the moderate VR content. The results show the potential for reducing cybersickness with simple non-invasive sensory stimulation. We discuss the prospect that noise-induced sensory re-weighting is responsible for the observed effects, and address other possible mechanisms.