Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Department of Computing and Software, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Exp Brain Res. 2020 Jun;238(6):1423-1432. doi: 10.1007/s00221-020-05824-9. Epub 2020 May 5.
Self-motion perception is based on the integration of visual (optic flow) and vestibular (inertial) sensory information. Previous research has shown that the relative contribution of visual and vestibular cues can change in real time based on the reliability of that information. The present study assessed whether initial velocity and acceleration magnitude influence the relative contribution of these cues to the detection of self-acceleration. Participants performed a simple response time task with visual and vestibular self-acceleration cues as targets. Visual optic flow was presented at three possible initial velocities of 3, 9, or 15 m/s, and accelerated to result in three possible final velocities of 21, 27, or 33 m/s. Corresponding vestibular cues were presented at magnitudes between 0.01 and 0.04 g. The self-acceleration cues were presented at three possible stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs): visual-first (by 100 ms), in-sync, and vestibular-first (by 100 ms). We found that presenting the cues in-sync resulted in the fastest responses across all velocities and acceleration magnitudes. Interestingly, presenting the visual cue first resulted in a relative advantage over vestibular-first at the slowest initial velocity of 3 m/s, and vice versa for the fastest initial velocity of 15 m/s. The fastest overall responses for visual-first and in-sync were observed at 9 m/s. The present results support the hypothesis that velocity of optic flow can alter the relative contribution of visual and vestibular cues to the detection of self-acceleration.
自我运动感知是基于视觉（光流）和前庭（惯性）感觉信息的整合。先前的研究表明，视觉和前庭线索的相对贡献可以根据信息的可靠性实时改变。本研究评估了初始速度和加速度大小是否会影响这些线索对自我加速度检测的相对贡献。参与者在视觉和前庭自我加速线索作为目标的简单反应时间任务中进行了操作。视觉光流呈现三个可能的初始速度，分别为 3、9 或 15 m/s，并加速至三个可能的最终速度，分别为 21、27 或 33 m/s。相应的前庭线索以 0.01 至 0.04 g 的幅度呈现。自我加速线索在三个可能的刺激起始异步（SOA）呈现：视觉优先（提前 100 毫秒）、同步和前庭优先（提前 100 毫秒）。我们发现，在所有速度和加速度大小下，同步呈现线索会导致最快的反应。有趣的是，在最慢的初始速度 3 m/s 时，先呈现视觉线索会相对于前庭线索具有相对优势，而在最快的初始速度 15 m/s 时则相反。在视觉优先和同步时，最快的整体反应出现在 9 m/s。本研究结果支持这样一种假设，即光流速度可以改变视觉和前庭线索对自我加速度检测的相对贡献。
