Visually mediated eye movements regulate the capture of optic flow in self-motion perception

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Perception
• Human Factors

Background:

• Eye movements are crucial for capturing optic-flow information, essential for perceiving self-motion.
• Visual and vestibular systems collaborate to control compensatory eye movements, stabilizing retinal images.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of compensatory eye movements in generating visual illusions of self-motion (vection).
• To examine how sensory conflict between visual and vestibular inputs affects vection.

Main Methods:

• Participants viewed radially expanding optic-flow displays with synchronized head movements (ipsilateral or contralateral oscillation).
• Control conditions included purely radial displays without head movement synchronization.
• Measurements included vection onset latency, vection strength ratings, and horizontal eye movements.

Main Results:

• Incorporating head movements into visual displays significantly increased vection onset and strength.
• Vection strength was similar for both ipsilateral and contralateral display oscillations, despite sensory conflict.
• Contralateral viewpoint oscillation unexpectedly induced vection earlier, despite minimal eye-in-head rotations.

Conclusions:

• Compensatory eye movements are governed by cooperative visual and vestibular interactions.
• Linear vection demonstrates high robustness against significant sensory conflicts between visual and vestibular systems.