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Updated: Apr 22, 2026

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane
Published on: August 22, 2025
Visual gravity cues in the interpretation of biological movements: neural correlates in humans
Vincenzo Maffei1, Iole Indovina1, Emiliano Macaluso2
1Centre of Space BioMedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
Our visual system takes into account the effects of Earth gravity to interpret biological motion (BM), but the neural substrates of this process remain unclear. Here we measured functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) signals while participants viewed intact or scrambled stick-figure animations of walking, running, hopping, and skipping recorded at normal or reduced gravity. We found that regions sensitive to BM configuration in the occipito-temporal cortex (OTC) were more active for reduced than normal gravity but with intact stimuli only. Effective connectivity analysis suggests that predictive coding of gravity effects underlies BM interpretation. This process might be implemented by a family of snapshot neurons involved in action monitoring.
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