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Influence of gaze elevation on estimating the possibility of passing under high obstacles during body tilt

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Abstract

We investigated the influence of gaze elevation on judging the possibility of passing under high obstacles during pitch body tilts, while stationary, in absence of allocentric cues. Specifically, we aimed at studying the influence of egocentric references upon geocentric judgements. Seated subjects, orientated at various body orientations, were asked to perceptually estimate the possibility of passing under a projected horizontal line while keeping their gaze on a fixation target and imagining a horizontal body displacement. The results showed a global overestimation of the possibility of passing under the line, and confirmed the influence of body orientation reported by Bringoux et al. (Exp Brain Res 185(4):673–680, 2008). More strikingly, a linear influence of gaze elevation was found on perceptual estimates. Precisely, downward eye elevation yielded increased overestimations, and conversely upward gaze elevation yielded decreased overestimations. Furthermore, body and gaze orientation effects were independent and combined additively to yield a global egocentric influence with a weight of 45 and 54%, respectively. Overall, our data suggest that multiple egocentric references can jointly affect the estimated possibility of passing under high obstacles. These results are discussed in terms of “interpenetrability” between geocentric and egocentric reference frames and clearly demonstrate that gaze elevation is involved, as body orientation, in geocentric spatial localization.

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Acknowledgments

Aurore Bourrelly was supported by a grant from DGA-CNRS (No. 2007-746). The authors are grateful to Gabriel Gauthier, Franck Buloup, and Alain Donneaud for their technical expertise and Cecile Scotto for her help during data acquisition and processing. They also thank Thelma Coyle, Julie Martin-Malivel and George Mitchell for English corrections, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments in revising the current manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Movement Sciences “Etienne-Jules Marey”, UMR 6233 CNRS and Université de la Méditerranée, 163, avenue de Luminy CP 910, 13288, Marseille Cedex 9, France

    Aurore Bourrelly, Lionel Bringoux & Jean-Louis Vercher

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  1. Aurore Bourrelly
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  2. Lionel Bringoux
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  3. Jean-Louis Vercher
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Correspondence to Aurore Bourrelly.

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Bourrelly, A., Bringoux, L. & Vercher, JL. Influence of gaze elevation on estimating the possibility of passing under high obstacles during body tilt. Exp Brain Res 193, 19–28 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1589-0

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