Abstract
Two experiments investigated the role of optic flow in controlling posture. Both experiments measured postural sway in two virtual environments with different 3-D structure but the same optic flow. Observers attempted to maintain balance on one foot while viewing an object that appeared either rigid with respect to the environment or that appeared to move concomitantly with head movements. The apparent object motion concomitant with head motion was achieved by changing the perceived, but not physical, depth of the object. For both objects, the optic flow information was the same and only depth information was varied. Observers showed a decrease in stability (as measured by head sway) when viewing the object that appeared to move, suggesting that perceived relative motion, not optic flow, signals self-motion to the postural control system.
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Notes
The system latency consists of 33.3 ms due to double-buffering of the graphics card (running at 60 Hz), plus an average of 8.3 ms (range of 0–16.6 ms) asynchrony between the position tracker frame rate (60 Hz) and graphics frame rate (60 Hz).
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Acknowledgements
Experiment 1 was presented at the Vision Sciences Society meeting, May 2003. The authors thank three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on the manuscript, and Kristen Macuga for helpful comments at all stages of this research. Supported by AFOSR grant F49620–02–1-0145.
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Kelly, J.W., Loomis, J.M. & Beall, A.C. The importance of perceived relative motion in the control of posture. Exp Brain Res 161, 285–292 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2069-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2069-9