滑手機頭暈 當心數碼動暈症
If you are watching computer-generated mayhem in the latest action film or scrolling rapidly on your smartphone, you may start to feel a little off. Maybe it is a dull headache or dizziness or creeping nausea.
如果你正在觀看最新的動作片中由電腦特效製作出來的混亂場面或者快速滾動智能手機的屏幕，你可能會開始覺得有點不舒服：或許是隱隱的頭痛，又或許是頭暈或者犯惡心。
And no, it is not something you ate.
不，這並不是你吃了什麼不對勁的東西的緣故。
A peculiar side effect of the 21st century is something called digital motion sickness or cybersickness. Increasingly common, according to Medical and media experts, it causes a person to feel woozy, as if on a boat in a churning sea, from viewing moving digital content.
這只是21世紀的一個奇特的副作用，叫做數碼動暈症(digital motion sickness)，通俗地稱之爲“暈屏幕”(cybersickness)。醫學和媒體專家稱，這種人因爲觀看活動的數碼媒體內容而感到頭昏眼花，有如乘船在大海上顛簸的現象正越來越普遍。
“It’s a fundamental problem that’s been kind of been swept under the carpet in the tech industry,” said Cyriel Diels, a cognitive psychologist and human factors researcher at Coventry University’s Center for Mobility and Transport in England. “It’s a natural response to an unnatural environment.”
“這個重要的問題可以說在高新技術產業一直被掩蓋，”英格蘭考文垂大學(Coventry University)交通及運輸中心(Center for Mobility and Transport)的認知心理學家和人爲因素研究員西里爾·迪爾斯(Cyriel Diels)說。“它是對不自然環境的一種自然反應。”
Digital motion sickness, known among medical professionals as visually induced motion sickness, stems from a basic mismatch between sensory inputs, said Steven Rauch, medical director of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Balance and Vestibular Center and professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School.
馬薩諸塞州眼耳平衡和前庭中心(Massachusetts Eye and Ear Balance and Vestibular Center)的醫務主任、哈佛醫學院(Harvard Medical School)的耳鼻咽喉科教授史蒂文·勞赫(Steven Rauch)表示，在醫學專業人士看來，數碼動暈症是一種由視覺誘發的動暈症，其根源在於感官輸入信號之間不匹配。
“Your sense of balance is different than other senses in that it has lots of inputs,” he said. “When those inputs don’t agree, that’s when you feel dizziness and nausea.”
“平衡感不同於其他感覺，它可以有很多輸入途徑，”他說。“當這些輸入信號不一致時，你就會感到頭暈和噁心。”
In traditional motion sickness, the mismatch occurs because you feel movement in your muscles and joints as well as in the intricate coils of your inner ear, but you do not see it. That is why getting up on the deck of a ship and looking at the horizon helps you feel better.
在傳統的動暈症中，矛盾感來源於你的肌肉、關節以及內耳錯綜複雜的半規管系統都感覺到你正在運動，但你的眼睛卻報告給你相反的結果。這也就是爲什麼你站到船的甲板上眺望地平線能改善你暈船症狀的原因。
But with digital motion sickness, it is the opposite. You see movement — like the turns and twists shown in a movie or video game car chase — that you do not feel. The result is the same: You may have sensory conflict that can make you feel queasy.
數碼動暈症則恰恰相反。你明明看到自己在運動——例如你看到電影或視頻遊戲中的飛車追逐和轉彎——可你的其他感官完全沒有運動的感受。其結果與普通動暈症相同：感覺的衝突會讓你覺得噁心。
It can happen to anyone, even if you are someone who is not prone to motion sickness in cars, boats or airplanes. Various studies indicate it can affect 50 percent to 80 percent of people, depending on the fidelity of the digital content and how it is presented.
任何人都可能發生這種情況，哪怕你平素並不容易暈車、暈船或暈機。衆多研究表明，人羣中暈屏幕者的比例高達50%到80%，具體取決於數碼內容的保真度及其呈現方式。
Studies show that women are more susceptible than men, as are those with a history of migraines or concussion. Anecdotally, researchers say that people with traits associated with the “Type A” personality — such as perfectionism or ambition — also seem to be more vulnerable. Nobody knows exactly why this might be, but one theory is that people with these traits may also have a tendency to be more alert and reactive to sensory inputs, similar to people who get migraines.
研究顯示，女性比男性更容易出現數碼動暈症，有偏頭痛或腦震盪史者對此也較爲敏感。有趣的是，研究人員稱，帶有“A型”人格特質的人，如完美主義或雄心勃勃的人似乎也更可能出現這種症狀。目前尚沒有人確切地知道爲什麼會是這樣，但有一種理論認爲，具備這些特質的人可能對感覺輸入信號更爲警覺，反應也更大，這與偏頭痛患者類似。
Often symptoms are subtle. As a result, many people with digital motion sickness do not quite know what is causing their discomfort, typically chalking it up to stress, stomach upset, eyestrain or vertigo.
數碼動暈症的症狀往往難以捉摸，所以很多患者都搞不清楚到底是什麼原因造成了他們的不適感，而常常將其歸咎於壓力、胃不舒服、眼睛疲勞或眩暈等。
None of this is news to the military, which has long known about the sickness that even seasoned pilots can feel in flight simulators. And the problem has only gotten worse as simulators have gotten better with virtual reality and 3D imagery.
不過，這在軍隊裏倒算不上什麼稀奇事，人們早就知道，在使用飛行模擬器時，就算是經驗豐富的飛行員也可能會感覺噁心。隨着模擬器的改進，虛擬現實和三維圖像的實現，這個問題正變得越來越糟糕。
It is the same sort of mind-bending artistry that is now pervading television and film and that even underlies the way the icons seem to float on your smartphone’s home screen. Quick cuts, rapid panning and first-person-view camera angles intensify the effect.
與此相類似的還有在當下影視中十分常見的令人激動的技巧，甚至讓你錯覺智能手機上的圖標是漂浮在主屏幕上的也是這類的把戲。飛速切換、快速平移和第一人稱視角的鏡頭都會強化這種效應。
“The idea is to get audiences to feel like participants in the action rather than outside observers of the action,” said Jonathan Weinstein, a former film producer and now a professor at the Kanbar Institute for Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. “It makes viewers more connected to the story — or it makes them hurl because in a film there’s really no horizon to look at.”
“我們想讓觀衆感覺自己正身臨其境，親身參與，而不僅僅是作壁上觀的局外人，”曾經的電影製片人，如今的紐約大學(New York University)Tisch藝術學院(Tisch School of the Arts)Kanbar影視研究院(Kanbar Institute for Film and Television)教授喬納森·溫斯坦(Jonathan Weinstein)說。“它讓觀衆更容易融入故事當中——又或者說，更容易讓你頭暈目眩，畢竟電影裏可沒有‘地平線’來幫你調適。”
Indeed, there is a website called that rates movies on how likely they are to make you feel sick. And mobile device and gamer forums are full of postings looking for advice on how to engage with the latest operating systems and interfaces without throwing up.
事實上，還真有一個叫做的網站按照各部電影致人頭暈噁心的程度給它們做了排名。而移動設備和玩家的論壇上也充斥着詢問如何在玩轉最新操作系統和界面的同時又不至於嘔吐的求助帖。
Apple had to add extra accessibility settings to its mobile operating system to allow users to tone down the visual stimuli. And executives at Oculus V.R., makers of the much-anticipated virtual reality headset Oculus Rift (the company was purchased by Facebook last year for $2 billion), have said digital motion sickness is one of their biggest hurdles.
蘋果公司(Apple)不得不在其移動操作系統中額外添加了輔助功能設置，以降低對用戶的視覺刺激。萬衆期待的虛擬現實耳機Oculus Rift的製造商Oculus VR公司（該公司已於去年被Facebook以20億美元的價格收購）的高管表示，數碼動暈症是令他們頭痛不已的最大障礙之一。
“The more realistic something is, the more likely you are going to get sick,” said Thomas Stoffregen, professor of kinesiology at the University of Minnesota, who has done extant research on digital motion sickness. “No one got sick playing Pac-Man.”
“一個東西顯得越真實，就越有可能讓你感到噁心，”明尼蘇達大學(University of Minnesota)的運動學教授，數碼動暈症的研究者托馬斯·施托夫雷根(Thomas Stoffregen)說。“誰都不會因爲玩吃豆人而噁心”。
Balance specialists said the problem can often be improved with habituation — watching, say, a chaotically cut film or playing a virtual reality game in short spurts just until the onset of mild symptoms, then recovering and repeating at specified intervals.
平衡專家表示，這個問題一般可以通過習慣化來改善——比如，短時間地觀看剪輯得亂七八糟的影片或者玩虛擬現實遊戲，在你產生輕微症狀之前就停下來，休息一下，然後再重複，如此以特定的時間間隔反覆。
“People usually respond well if we have them do it in a very controlled, conservative way,” said Lisa Heusel-Gillig, a physical therapist and neurological clinical specialist at the Emory Dizziness and Balance Center in Atlanta.
“在以高度可控且非常保守的方式來進行上述習慣化訓練時，人們通常反應不錯。”亞特蘭大Emory眩暈和平衡中心(Emory Dizziness and Balance Center)的物理治療師及神經科臨牀專家莉莎·休塞爾-吉利格(Lisa Heusel-Gillig)說。
But some experts wonder whether it is a good idea to train your brain to ignore conflicting sensory stimuli because it might inhibit your ability to react appropriately in the real world.
但也有部分專家質疑訓練大腦去忽視矛盾的感官刺激未必是個好主意，因爲這可能會抑制你在現實世界中做出適當反應的能力。
“There are certainly concerns, particularly when it comes to long term exposure,” said Kay Stanney, a human factors researcher in Orlando, Fla., who consults with the military and businesses on the design and use of virtual reality and other immersive technologies.
“這樣肯定會產生隱患，尤其是涉及長期接觸的時候，”佛羅里達州奧蘭多市的人爲因素研究員凱·史丹尼(Kay Stanney)說。她是軍方和企業在虛擬現實和其他沉浸式技術（immersive technologies，又譯身臨其境技術）的設計和使用領域的顧問之一。
Dr. Stanney said her team has tested more than a thousand subjects in virtual reality sessions and has seen that the magnitude of aftereffects can be strong and long lasting. When study subjects returned to the real world,they had trouble with visual focusing, tracking images and hand-eye coordination.
史丹尼博士稱，她的團隊利用虛擬現實片段測試了一千多名受試者，發現其後遺症的效果強大且持久。當研究受試者返回現實世界時，他們在視覺聚焦、圖像跟蹤和手眼協調等方面都出現了問題。
Dr. Stanney said her team also measured a fundamental shift in people’s postural stability.
史丹尼博士補充說，她的團隊還發現這些人的姿態穩定性發生了根本性的轉變。
The worry is that a teenager, after several hours of playing a virtual reality game, might get behind the wheel of a car and have balance and vision impairments similar to being drunk. Lengthy viewing of high-definition televisions or scrolling wildly on a phone might also somehow alter people’s sense of equilibrium, making them more likely to trip and fall.
最令人擔憂的是，青少年很可能在玩了幾個小時的虛擬現實遊戲後接着就去開車，此時他很可能出現醉酒般的平衡和視覺障礙。長時間觀看高清電視或快速滾動手機屏幕也可能以某種方式改變人們的平衡感，使他們更容易絆倒和摔跤。
“Long-term studies need to be done to understand the full impact,” Dr. Stanney said. “In the military you can be grounded for up to 12 hours after a simulator session because they understand the aftereffects are real.”
“想要全面地瞭解這些影響需要進行長期的研究，”史丹尼博士說。“在軍隊裏，飛行員在模擬器訓練後最長會被停飛12個小時，因爲他們都清楚這些副作用可不是唬人的。”
