The Effects of Visual Parabolic Motion on the Subjective Vertical and on Interception. 2021

Priscilla Balestrucci, and Vincenzo Maffei, and Francesco Lacquaniti, and Alessandro Moscatelli
Department of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Italy; Applied Cognitive Psychology, Ulm University, Germany. Electronic address: priscilla.balestrucci@uni-ulm.de.

Observers typically present a strong bias in estimating the orientation of a visual bar when their body is tilted >60° in the roll plane and in the absence of visual background information. Known as the A-effect, this phenomenon likely results from the under-compensation of body tilt. Static visual cues can reduce such bias in the perceived vertical. Yet, it is unknown whether dynamic visual cues would be also effective. Here we presented projectile motions of a visual target along parabolic trajectories with different orientations relative to physical gravity. The aim of the experiment was twofold: First, we assessed whether the projectile motions could bias the estimation of the perceived orientation of a visual bar, measured with a classical subjective visual vertical (SVV) task. Second, we evaluated whether the ability to estimate time-to-contact of the visual target in an interception task was influenced by the orientation of these parabolic trajectories. Two groups of participants performed the experiment, either with their head and body tilted 90° along the roll plane or in an upright position. We found that the perceived orientation of the visual bar in the SVV task was affected by the orientation of the parabolic trajectories. This result was present in the tilted but not in the upright participants. In the interception task, the timing error increased linearly as a function of the orientation of the parabola. These results support the hypothesis that a gravity vector estimated from dynamic visual stimuli contributes to the subjective visual vertical.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009949 Orientation Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person. Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D006112 Gravitation Acceleration produced by the mutual attraction of two masses, and of magnitude inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two centers of mass. It is also the force imparted by the earth, moon, or a planet to an object near its surface. (From NASA Thesaurus, 1988) G Force,Gravistimulation,Gravity,Force, G,G Forces,Gravities
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D013028 Space Perception The awareness of the spatial properties of objects; includes physical space. Perception, Space,Perceptions, Space,Space Perceptions
D014796 Visual Perception The selecting and organizing of visual stimuli based on the individual's past experience. Visual Processing,Perception, Visual,Processing, Visual
D019416 Head Movements Voluntary or involuntary motion of head that may be relative to or independent of body; includes animals and humans. Head Movement,Movement, Head,Movements, Head

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