The Role of Neck Afferents in Subjective Orientation in the Visual and Tactile Sensory Modalities

Abstract

We studied the influence of neck afferents on the perception of orientation. In Experiment 1, we investigated the effect of head tilt on the subjective vertical in both the visual and tactile modalities. The results showed that head tilt triggers an Aubert effect in the visual modality and a Müller effect in the tactile modality. Significant positive correlations between the two adjustment modalities were restricted to head tilt to the left. In Experiment 2, we investigated the role of neck afferents on tactile orientation in seated and supine positions. The results showed that, in the supine position, the tactile E-effect was twice as large as in the seated position. These experiments confirm that tactile perception of orientation is affected by neck afferents, and show that the influence of neck afferents is limited by relevant gravitational cues.