Influence of visual and haptic cues on podokinetic after-rotation

Active countercircling on a rotating platform for 15 min causes individuals to involuntarily circle in the same direction when they step in place on firm ground. This is referred to as podokinetic after-rotation (PKAR). It is unclear how interjecting brief periods of visual or haptic inputs for a stable orientation reference affects PKAR. The authors studied this issue in 16 healthy individuals who participated in three sessions each. Following active countercircling, participants attempted to step in place for 30 min on firm ground. In two of three sessions, participants received full visual input or made fingertip contact with a stationary object for 30 s during 30 min of ongoing PKAR. All participants slowed or stopped rotating during the presence of visual or haptic inputs and resumed PKAR after removal of these inputs. Exponential functions fitted to angular trunk velocity versus time plots revealed no significant differences across conditions (p > .05). The preservation of PKAR after brief exposure to a visual or haptic reference is consistent with a slowly decaying velocity storage that is not reset or dumped after exposure to conflicting visual or haptic cues.