The role of acceleration and jerk in perception of above-threshold surge motion

Ksander N De Winkel,Heinrich H Bülthoff,Florian Soyka

doi:10.1007/s00221-020-05745-7

Ksander N De Winkel, Heinrich H Bülthoff + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05745-7

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Abstract

Inertial motions may be defined in terms of acceleration and jerk, the time-derivative of acceleration. We investigated the relative contributions of these characteristics to the perceived intensity of motions. Participants were seated on a high-fidelity motion platform, and presented with 25 above-threshold 1 s forward (surge) motions that had acceleration values ranging between 0.5 and 2.5 text {m/s}^2 and jerks between 20 and 60 text {m/s}^3, in five steps each. Participants performed two tasks: a magnitude estimation task, where they provided subjective ratings of motion intensity for each motion, and a two-interval forced choice task, where they provided judgments on which motion of a pair was more intense, for all possible combinations of the above motion profiles. Analysis of the data shows that responses on both tasks may be explained by a single model, and that this model should include acceleration only. The finding that perceived motion intensity depends on acceleration only appears inconsistent with previous findings. We show that this discrepancy can be explained by considering the frequency content of the motions, and demonstrate that a linear time-invariant systems model of the otoliths and subsequent processing can account for the present data as well as for previous findings.

Highlights

Perception of self-motion results from interactions between different sensory modalities (Howard 1982): the visual system registers optic flow and uses this information to estimate velocity and motion direction, and the vestibular system and a variety of somatosensory sensors throughoutCommunicated by John C
Physiological studies performed in monkeys (Fernandez and Goldberg 1976; Massot et al 2011; Yu et al 2012; Jamali et al 2013; Laurens et al 2017) have shown that the output of the otolith organs, the afferent neural firing rate, and subsequent processing of these signals depends on acceleration and jerk, and changes with frequency content
In a separate analysis of the magnitude estimation (ME) task, a positive effect of acceleration was found for all participants, and a negative interaction effect between jerk and acceleration was found for three participants

Summary

Introduction

Perception of self-motion results from interactions between different sensory modalities (Howard 1982): the visual system registers optic flow and uses this information to estimate velocity and motion direction (de Winkel et al 2018), and the vestibular system and a variety of somatosensory (proprioceptive/kinesthetic and tactile) sensors throughoutCommunicated by John C. For translational motion, which is the focus of the present study, the otolith organs of the vestibular system are generally regarded as the primary contributor (Walsh 1961; Valko et al 2012). Physiological studies performed in monkeys (Fernandez and Goldberg 1976; Massot et al 2011; Yu et al 2012; Jamali et al 2013; Laurens et al 2017) have shown that the output of the otolith organs, the afferent neural firing rate, and subsequent processing of these signals depends on acceleration and jerk (rate of change of acceleration), and changes with frequency content. Psychophysical studies performed in humans show that motion direction detection thresholds (Benson et al 1986; Soyka et al 2009, 2011), absolute detection thresholds (Heerspink et al 2005) and differential thresholds (Grant and Haycock 2008) depend on acceleration and jerk. Grant and Haycock (2008) took a somewhat different approach: they presented subjects

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