Figure skaters like those in the Olympics often spin like tops at incredible speeds. For example, Natalia Kanounnikova holds the Guinness Record for the fastest spin on ice at 308 revolutions per minute. Why don't these athletes get dizzy? Sure, focusing your vision on one spot helps but it's more about your brain adapting to frequent spin sessions over time. From CNN:
"There's a really profound fundamental thing that happens in the brain of people like dancers or skaters over lots and lots of practice. And that's basically a change in the way the brain is processing information," [Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineering professor Kathleen] Cullen says.
"When you spin around, you're activating the semicircular canals, rotation sensors. They're filled with fluid and they're sensing your rotation. But when you stop, the fluid has inertia and it tends to continue to move. They actually get a false sensation of movement."
Over years of training, figure skaters' brains have adapted and learned to ignore this error, she says."This is done over time with each practice session, day by day, as the brain compares its expectations with what it is actually pulling in from its sensory receptors."
