Mal de Débarquement

Rock The Boat

(As recorded by The Hues Corporation)
WALLY HOLMES

So I'd like to know where you got the notion
Said I'd like to know where you got the notion

To rock the boat
Don't rock the boat baby
Rock the boat

Don't tip the boat over
Rock the boat
Don't rock the boat baby
Rock the boat.

Continuing on the topic of nausea and songs from the 70's, the New York Times has an article on mal de débarquement, or "reverse seasickness":

When Seasickness Persists After a Return to Solid Ground

By ELIZABETH SVOBODA
Published: June 12, 2007

. . .

"Landsickness" or "reverse seasickness" is familiar to many people who have taken long cruises -- once the body has become accustomed to constant motion, the vestibular system, which controls balance, usually takes a few hours or days to acclimate to being on land again. But in patients like Mrs. Josselyn, who suffer from what is known as mal de débarquement, or debarkation sickness, the brain never seems to readapt.

Their symptoms, which include dizziness, nausea and a persistent feeling of rocking from side to side, can continue for decades after the fateful voyage that initiates them...

. . .

After years of treating patients and mulling over individual case histories, Dr. [Timothy C.] Hain has formulated a broad theory of what causes the condition, with the help of Charles Oman, an aeronautics engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and head of the motion-sickness program at NASA.

"A very sophisticated way of dealing with your environment is to form an internal model of it in your brain," Dr. Hain said. "A boat is a perfect place for this kind of internal model to form. It's rocking back and forth, and it gets into a rhythm that you start to be able to predict."

Sufferers of mal de débarquement, Dr. Hain theorizes, form internal models of the boat that are very accurate — so accurate, in fact, that they typically suffer very little seasickness or uneasiness while on board. "They’re the ones who are walking around the boat and having a great time," he said. "But when they get off, they don’t give up their internal models very easily." The disconnect between the entrenched internal model and the person’s actual surroundings, he believes, is what spawns the disease’s disorienting symptoms.

The Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat (1974)