When the journey matters more than the destination, few things are worse than dealing with motion sickness. It can put a damper on a road trip or take the fun out of a cruise. While there are medications to ease the waves of nausea and discomfort, researchers at Southwest University wondered whether the therapeutic power of music could offer a solution.
In a recent study, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, the team demonstrated that soft and joyful music helped individuals recover from car sickness.1 While further studies are needed, the researchers are hopeful that music can possibly alleviate motion sickness from sea or air travel too.
First, the researchers set up a driving simulator with pre-screened routes determined by volunteers as the best routes for inducing car sickness. Then, each participant wore an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap that recorded brain activity as they drove on a virtual road trip for a few minutes.
The researchers divided 30 drivers into six groups: four that received a music intervention, one that did not receive music, and one whose simulation ended before the group became nauseous. This last group served as a comparison to help the team identify the brain activity signals characteristic of car sickness.
After driving, those in the music groups received 60 seconds of music and then reported how sick they felt. Indeed, joyful and soft music helped alleviate car sickness the most, followed by passionate music. The researchers saw that sad music was less effective than listening to no music as the participants recovered from their motion sickness. Based on this, the team noted that sad music might amplify more negative emotions and increase discomfort.
From the EEG data, the team observed changes in brain activity in the occipital lobe when the drivers reported car sickness. As people felt sick and became dizzy from driving, there was less activity in the brain region that processed visual information. As individuals recovered, their brain activity increased back to baseline levels.
Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that cheerful or gentle music can help alleviate motion sickness. However, they also acknowledged the need for further investigation with a larger sample size, real-life road conditions, and the role of personal music preference.
But, for now, it probably wouldn’t hurt to queue up some happy tunes on the next road trip playlist.
- Li Y, et al. A study on the mitigating effect of different music types on motion sickness based on EEG analysis. Front Hum Neurosci. 2025.
