Podokinetic circular vection: characteristics and interaction with optokinetic circular vection

Stabilising horizontal body orientation in space without sight on a rotating platform by holding to a stationary structure and circular 'treadmill' stepping in the opposite direction can elicit an illusion of self-turning in space (Bles and Kapteyn in Agressologie 18:325-328, 1977). Because this illusion is analogous to the well-known illusion of optokinetic circular vection (oCV), we call it 'podokinetic circular vection' (pCV) here. Previous studies using eccentric stepping on a path tangential to the rotation found that pCV was always contraversive relative to platform rotation. In contrast, when our subjects stepped at the centre of rotation about their vertical axis, we observed an inverted, ipsiversive pCV as a reproducible trait in many of our subjects. This ipCV occurred at the same latency as the pCV of subjects reporting the actually expected contraversive direction, but had lower gain. In contrast to pCV, the nystagmus accompanying circular treadmill stepping had the same direction in all individuals (slow phase in the direction of platform motion). The direction of an individual's pCV predicted the characteristics of the CV resulting from combined opto- and podokinetic stimulation (circular treadmill stepping while viewing a pattern rotating together with the platform): in individuals with contraversive pCV, latency shortened and both gain and felt naturalness increased in comparison with pure oCV, whereas the opposite (longer latency, reduced gain and naturalness) occurred in individuals with ipCV. Taken together, the reproducibility of ipCV, the constant direction of nystagmus and the fact that pCV direction predicts the outcome of combined stimulation suggest that ipCV is an individual trait of many subjects during compensatory stepping at the centre of rotation. A hypothetical model is presented of how ipCV possibly could arise.