Abstract
In the present study, the effects of depth order on forward and backward vection were examined using optical flows simulating motion in depth (i.e., approaching or receding). In an experiment, space extending 10 or 20 m in depth was simulated, and the space was divided into foreground and background spaces. In each space, a random-dot pattern was presented and the binocular disparity, size, and velocity of each dot were continuously manipulated in a way consistent with the depth being simulated. Participants reported whether they perceived vection. Latency, total duration (i.e., the amount of time that participants reported perceiving vection during a 60-s presentation), and strong-vection duration (i.e., the amount of time that participants reported perceiving strong vection) were measured. The results indicated that, even though the dots making up the optical flow were much smaller and slower moving in the background space than in the foreground space, vection was strongly dependent on flow motion in the background space. This supports the idea that the perceptual system uses background stimulus motion as a reliable cue for self-motion perception.
Highlights
When observers view a moving stimulus in a large area of their visual field, they perceive self-motion in the opposite direction of the stimulus motion
4 Discussion In the present study, we continuously manipulated dot velocity, size, and disparity corresponding to simulated distances from the observer, to examine the effects of depth order on forward and backward vection
The results showed that the latency to the onset of vection was clearly less when the background dots were in motion than when they were stationary
Summary
When observers view a moving stimulus in a large area of their visual field, they perceive self-motion in the opposite direction of the stimulus motion This phenomenon is called vection (Brandt, Dichgans, & Koenig, 1973), and is considered to be evidence that visual information induces self-motion perception independently of actual body movements (for a review, see Warren, 1995). Because vestibular organs respond only to the acceleration of body movements, it is reasonable to assume that visual information of counter-motion of the visual scene causes sustained perception of self-motion This notion is supported by physiological evidence indicating that visual inputs (such as optical flow caused by an observer’s locomotion), as well as vestibular information, activate the vestibular nuclei (e.g., Dichgans, Schmidt, & Graf, 1973; Henn, Young, & Finley, 1974; Hoffmann & Distler, 1986; for reviews, see Barmack, 2003; Ilg, 1997). The strength of vection increases with increasing stimulus velocity (Brandt et al, 1973; Nakamura & Shimojo, 1999) and size (Brandt et al, 1973; Berthoz, Pavard, & Young, 1975; Held, Dichgans, & Bauer, 1975; see Leibowitz, Post, Rodemer, Wadlington, & Lundy, 1980), and the direction of vection has been shown to be modulated by attention (Kitazaki & Sato, 2003) such that the direction of vection is determined by nonattended motion
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