Visual Signals Research Articles

Effects of spatial frequency cross-adaptation on the visual number sense.

When observing a simple visual scene such as an array of dots, observers can easily and automatically extract their number. How does our visual system accomplish this? We investigate the role of specific spatial frequencies to the encoding of number through cross-adaptation. In two experiments, observers were peripherally adapted to six randomly generated sinusoidal gratings varying from relatively low-spatial frequency (M = 0.44 c/deg) to relatively high-spatial frequency (M = 5.88 c/deg). Subsequently, observers judged which side of the screen had a higher number of dots. We found a strong number-adaptation effect to low-spatial frequency gratings (i.e., participants significantly underestimated the number of dots on the adapted side) but a significantly reduced adaptation effect for high-spatial frequency gratings. Various control conditions demonstrate that these effects are not due to a generic response bias for the adapted side, nor moderated by dot size or spacing effects. In a third experiment, we observed no cross-adaptation for centrally presented gratings. Our results show that observers' peripheral number perception can be adapted even with stimuli lacking any numeric or segmented object information and that low spatial frequencies adapt peripheral number perception more than high ones. Together, our results are consistent with recent number perception models that suggest a key role for spatial frequency in the extraction of number from the visual signal (e.g., Paul, Ackooij, Ten Cate, & Harvey, 2022), but additionally suggest that some spatial frequencies - especially in the low range and in the periphery - may be weighted more by the visual system when estimating number. We argue that the cross-adaptation paradigm is also a useful methodology for discovering the primitives of visual number encoding.

Continuous multiplexed population representations of task context in the mouse primary visual cortex

Effective task execution requires the representation of multiple task-related variables that determine how stimuli lead to correct responses. Even the primary visual cortex (V1) represents other task-related variables such as expectations, choice, and context. However, it is unclear how V1 can flexibly accommodate these variables without interfering with visual representations. We trained mice on a context-switching cross-modal decision task, where performance depends on inferring task context. We found that the context signal that emerged in V1 was behaviorally relevant as it strongly covaried with performance, independent from movement. Importantly, this signal was integrated into V1 representation by multiplexing visual and context signals into orthogonal subspaces. In addition, auditory and choice signals were also multiplexed as these signals were orthogonal to the context representation. Thus, multiplexing allows V1 to integrate visual inputs with other sensory modalities and cognitive variables to avoid interference with the visual representation while ensuring the maintenance of task-relevant variables.

Influence of visual perception on movement decisions by an ungulate prey species.

Visual perception is dynamic and depends on physiological properties of a species' visual system and physical characteristics of the environment. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are most sensitive to short- and mid-wavelength light (e.g. blue and green). Wavelength enrichment varies spatially and temporally across the landscape. We assessed how the visual perception of deer influences their movement decisions. From August to September 2019, we recorded 10-min locations from 15 GPS-collared adult male deer in Central Florida. We used Hidden-Markov models to identify periods of movement by deer and subset these data into three time periods based on temporal changes in light environments. We modeled resource selection during movement using path-selection functions and simulated 10 available paths for every path used. We developed five a priori models and used 10-fold cross validation to assess our top model's performance for each time period. During the day, deer selected to move through woodland shade, avoided forest shade, and neither selected nor avoided small gaps. At twilight, deer avoided wetlands as cloud cover increased but neither selected nor avoided other cover types. Visual cues and signals are likely more conspicuous to deer in short-wavelength-enriched woodland shade during the day, while at twilight in long-wavelength-enriched wetlands during cloud cover, visual cues are likely less conspicuous. The nocturnal light environment did not influence resource selection and likely has little effect on deer movements because it's relatively homogenous. Our findings suggest visual perception relative to light environments is likely an underappreciated driver of behaviors and decision-making by an ungulate prey species.

Motor Signals Mediate Stationarity Perception.

Head movement relative to the stationary environment gives rise to congruent vestibular and visual optic-flow signals. The resulting perception of a stationary visual environment, referred to herein as stationarity perception, depends on mechanisms that compare visual and vestibular signals to evaluate their congruence. Here we investigate the functioning of these mechanisms and their dependence on fixation behavior as well as on the active versus passive nature of the head movement. Stationarity perception was measured by modifying the gain on visual motion relative to head movement on individual trials and asking subjects to report whether the gain was too low or too high. Fitting a psychometric function to the data yields two key parameters of performance. The mean is a measure of accuracy, and the standard deviation is a measure of precision. Experiments were conducted using a head-mounted display with fixation behavior monitored by an embedded eye tracker. During active conditions, subjects rotated their heads in yaw ∼15deg/s over ∼1s. Each subject's movements were recorded and played back via rotating chair during the passive condition. During head-fixed and scene-fixed fixation the fixation target moved with the head or scene, respectively. Both precision and accuracy were better during active than passive head movement, likely due to increased precision on the head movement estimate arising from motor prediction and neck proprioception. Performance was also better during scene-fixed than head-fixed fixation, perhaps due to decreased velocity of retinal image motion and increased precision on the retinal image motion estimate. These results reveal how the nature of head and eye movements mediate encoding, processing, and comparison of relevant sensory and motor signals.

Identification and characterization of light-responsive genes in pre-settlement eyed veligers of Mytilus coruscus

Mytilus coruscus is one of large bivalve mollusks that is wildly distributed along the coasts of Korea, Japan and China and as a potential economic shellfish candidate. Efforts to propagate and culture M. coruscus have expanded worldwide recent years. The larval stage of bivalves is a vital life-history phase, of which the eyed veligers larva with a pigmented eyespot is the pre-settlement phase of M. coruscus. However, information on light conditions for the breeding of its larval during the eye-spotting period is still limited. In our study, based on the transcriptome analysis of the different light cycles from M. coruscus were performed with the DNBSEQ to screen for light-response genes. Comparative transcriptome analysis identified 853 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the 12 h vs 0 h group and 696 genes were differentially expressed between 12 h vs 24 h group. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses revealed that DEGs were assigned to 1078 and 969 pathways, respectively. The DEGs were enriched in organismal systems pathways such as immune system pathway, endocrine system pathway, development pathway, and environmental adaptation pathway. Further analysis revealed that DEGs, including CRY and CLOCK, were significantly overrepresented in the circadian rhythm pathway. We also identified a visual OPIN gene, which affects the detection of relevant visual signals. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRTPCR) showed that CRY and CLOCK were down-regulated, whereas OPIN was up-regulated. The data from this study provides important insights into the light response of M. coruscus, which will aid future investigations into the management of M. coruscus breeding in Bivalvia.

Prediction underlying comprehension of human motion: an analysis of Deaf signer and non-signer EEG in response to visual stimuli.

Sensory inference and top-down predictive processing, reflected in human neural activity, play a critical role in higher-order cognitive processes, such as language comprehension. However, the neurobiological bases of predictive processing in higher-order cognitive processes are not well-understood. This study used electroencephalography (EEG) to track participants' cortical dynamics in response to Austrian Sign Language and reversed sign language videos, measuring neural coherence to optical flow in the visual signal. We then used machine learning to assess entropy-based relevance of specific frequencies and regions of interest to brain state classification accuracy. EEG features highly relevant for classification were distributed across language processing-related regions in Deaf signers (frontal cortex and left hemisphere), while in non-signers such features were concentrated in visual and spatial processing regions. The results highlight functional significance of predictive processing time windows for sign language comprehension and biological motion processing, and the role of long-term experience (learning) in minimizing prediction error.

Red fruits exhibit lower colour diversity than red flowers as perceived by birds

Abstract Pollination and seed dispersal are crucial processes for plant reproduction, sharing ecological relevance and similarities, yet they have rarely been considered together. Flowers appear to express greater phenotypic diversity than fruits due to multiple confounding factors, which pose challenges for comparative analyses. The colours of flowers and fruits are important visual signal traits in pollination and seed dispersal, evolving under different selective pressures from their respective pollinators and seed dispersers. Birds constitute a unique plant‐interacting group that participates in both pollination and seed dispersal events. In this study, we focus on red flowers and red fruits associated with avian mutualists to gain insight into the intrinsic differences between flowers/pollination and fruits/seed dispersal. We conducted comparisons of colouration between 94 red flowers pollinated by birds and 99 red fruits dispersed by birds. The colour diversity was compared in both the spectral space and the avian colour vision spaces. Colour conspicuousness was analysed using avian colour vision models, as well as bee models. Pigeon colour preference was tested by controlled experiments utilizing red stimuli with and without secondary peaks at short wavelengths. Red fruits had lower colour diversity than red flowers, with redder hues and fewer secondary reflectance peaks. Avian colour vision models illustrated that fruits were more conspicuous than flowers achromatically, but not chromatically. Pigeons did not show preference for red with or without a secondary peak. Although both are red, there are significant differences between flowers and fruits in terms of colour diversity, spectral properties and colour perceptions. As we exclusively considered avian mutualists, these differences cannot be attributed to the differences in interacting animal groups or to their colour vision properties. This implies that the differences in evolutionary history between flowers and fruits may deserve further attention to understand the colour evolution. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Decoding Reach Direction in Early "Visual" Cortex of Congenitally Blind Individuals.

Motor actions, such as reaching or grasping, can be decoded from fMRI activity of early visual cortex (EVC) in sighted humans. This effect can depend on vision or visual imagery, or alternatively, could be driven by mechanisms independent of visual experience. Here, we show that the actions of reaching in different directions can be reliably decoded from fMRI activity of EVC in congenitally blind humans (both sexes). Thus, neither visual experience nor visual imagery is necessary for EVC to represent action-related information. We also demonstrate that, within EVC of blind humans, the accuracy of reach direction decoding is highest in areas typically representing foveal vision and gradually decreases in areas typically representing peripheral vision. We propose that this might indicate the existence of a predictive, hard-wired mechanism of aligning action and visual spaces. This mechanism might send action-related information primarily to the high-resolution foveal visual areas, which are critical for guiding and online correction of motor actions. Finally, we show that, beyond EVC, the decoding of reach direction in blind humans is most accurate in dorsal stream areas known to be critical for visuo-spatial and visuo-motor integration in the sighted. Thus, these areas can develop space and action representations even in the lifelong absence of vision. Overall, our findings in congenitally blind humans match previous research on the action system in the sighted, and suggest that the development of action representations in the human brain might be largely independent of visual experience.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Early visual cortex (EVC) was traditionally thought to process only visual signals from the retina. Recent studies proved this account incomplete, and showed EVC involvement in many activities not directly related to incoming visual information, such as memory, sound, or action processing. Is EVC involved in these activities because of visual imagery? Here, we show robust reach direction representation in EVC of humans born blind. This demonstrates that EVC can represent actions independently of vision and visual imagery. Beyond EVC, we found that reach direction representation in blind humans is strongest in dorsal brain areas, critical for action processing in the sighted. This suggests that the development of action representations in the human brain is largely independent of visual experience.

Impaired Dynamic Cerebral Autoregulation in Patients With Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis: Evaluation Using Transcranial Doppler and Silent Reading Stimulation.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) may impair dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) of the middle cerebral artery (MCA). However, most studies have focused on dCA of the MCA; a few studies are based on the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) during silent reading and neurovascular coupling (NVC). This study explored the effects of CVST on dCA of the MCA and PCA during silent reading and NVC. From January 2021 to August 2022, 60 CVST patients and 30 controls were enrolled in this study. Non-invasive continuous beat-to-beat blood pressure, cerebral blood flow velocity and other associated information on the MCA and PCA during silent reading were collected using a transcranial Doppler. NVC assessment was performed by opening and closing the eyes periodically based on voice prompts, and eye-opening visual stimulation was achieved by silently reading Chinese tourism materials. Visual stimulation signals can selectively activate Brodmann's areas 17, 18, and 19 of the occipital when reading silently with open eyes, prompting them to release neurotransmitters and dilate PCA. dCA was determined by transfer function analysis. In dCA of the PCA during silent reading, the CVST group's very low frequency phase was lower than that of the control group (p=0.047). In NVC, the difference in the indexes of the cerebrovascular conductance and visually evoked flow response of the CVST group were lower than those of the control group (p=0.017 and p=0.019, respectively). Compared with the control group, dCA and NVC of the PCA during silent reading were impaired in CVST patients.

The influence of temporal (a)synchrony and linguistic complexity on audiovisual speech perception

Audiovisual (AV) cues often lead to improved speech understanding, especially when the auditory input is impoverished (e.g., in background noise, for people with hearing loss). This AV improvement occurs when both the auditory and visual information can be integrated together effectively (e.g., through temporal synchrony). However, whether the complexity of speech signals influences this integrated percept and how this contributes to speech understanding is still unknown. This study investigates whether individual differences in perception of temporal synchrony of the auditory and visual speech signal explain individual variability in AV speech recognition, and whether this differs across different levels of linguistic processing. By implementing five different levels of linguistic complexity (i.e., varying phoneme-viseme connections, vocabulary knowledge and/or linguistic context) and introducing temporal asynchrony in a remote task with English speaking adults we ask the following questions: (1) Is temporal synchrony needed to observe AV speech perception benefits? (2) Does this vary by linguistic level? (3) Does linguistic complexity influence synchrony perception? (4) And does synchrony perception explain individual variability in AV speech perception? These findings add value in deciding how AV synchronization should be balanced in hearing aid designs as well as in augmented / virtual reality devices.

Two sides of the same wing: ventral scales enhance dorsal wing color in the butterfly Speyeria mormonia.

Biological visual signals are often produced by complex interactions between light-absorbing and light-scattering structures, but for many signals potential interactions between different light-interacting components have yet to be tested. Butterfly wings, for example, are thin enough that their two sides may not be optically isolated. We tested if ventral wing scales of the Mormon fritillary Speyeria mormonia impact the appearances of dorsal orange patches, which are thought to be involved in sexual signaling. Using reflectance spectroscopy, we found ventral scales, either silvered or non-silvered, make dorsal orange patches significantly brighter, with the silvered scales having the greater effect. Computational modeling indicates both types of ventral scales enhance the chromatic perceptual signal of dorsal orange patches, with only the silvered scales also enhancing their achromatic perceptual signal. A lack of optical independence between the two sides of the wings of S. mormonia implies the wing surfaces of butterflies have intertwined signaling functions and evolutionary histories.

All-a-glow: spectral characteristics confirm widespread fluorescence for mammals.

Mammalian fluorescence has been reported from numerous species of monotreme, marsupial and placental mammal. However, it is unknown how widespread this phenomenon is among mammals, it is unclear for many species if these observations of 'glowing' are true fluorescence and the biological function of fluorescence remains undetermined. We examined a wide range of mammal species held in a museum collection for the presence of apparent fluorescence using UV light, and then analysed a subset of preserved and non-preserved specimens by fluorescent spectroscopy at three different excitation wavelengths to assess whether the observations were fluorescence or optical scatter, and the impact of specimen preservation. We also evaluated if fluorescence was related to biological traits. We found that fluorescence is widespread in mammalian taxa; we identified examples of the phenomena among 125 species representing all 27 living mammalian orders and 79 families. For a number of model species, there was no evidence of a corresponding shift in the emission spectra when the wavelength of excitation was shifted, suggesting that observations of 'glowing' mammals were indeed fluorescence. Preservation method impacted the intensity of fluorescence. Fluorescence was most common and most intense among nocturnal species and those with terrestrial, arboreal and fossorial habits, with more of their body being more fluorescent. It remains unclear if fluorescence has any specific biological role for mammals. It appears to be a ubiquitous property of unpigmented fur and skin but may function to make these areas appear brighter and therefore enhance visual signalling, especially for nocturnal species.

MM-FRec: Multi-Modal Enhanced Fashion Item Recommendation

Existing studies on fashion item recommendation mainly focused on incorporating the visual signals of items to boost the user preference learning, while overlooking the semantic attributes (e.g., material and brand) of fashion items that also contain important cues about items' properties and users' preference. To bridge this gap, we aim to comprehensively explore the attribute and vision modalities of items to improve the fashion item recommendation performance. However, this is non-trivial due to the latent visual-semantic consistency, various relation types, and unique attributes with insufficient samples. To address these challenges, we propose a Multi-Modal enhanced Fashion item Recommendation scheme (MM-FRec). Specifically, to cope with the multi-modal data, we introduce a relation-oriented graph as well as a vision-oriented graph, and design MM-FRec with three key components: attribute-enhanced latent representation learning, visual representation learning, and multi-modal enhanced preference modeling. To deal with the various relation types, we present a new relation-aware propagation method for adaptively aggregating the information from neighbor nodes to promote the user and item representation learning. To cope with the unique attributes, we introduce the deep multi-task learning strategy in the relation-aware confidence assignment. Extensive experiments on a real-world dataset demonstrate the superiority of our model over state-of-the-art methods.

Overview and Recent Progress on the Biosynthesis and Regulation of Flavonoids in Ginkgo biloba L.

Flavonoids and their derivatives play important roles in plants, such as exerting protective activity against biotic and abiotic stresses, functioning in visual signaling to attract pollinators, and regulating phytohormone activity. They are also important secondary metabolites that are beneficial to humans. Ginkgo biloba L. is a well-known relict plant considered to be a "living fossil". Flavonoids present in ginkgo leaves have antioxidant and anti-aging capacities and show good therapeutic effects on a variety of neurological diseases. To date, studies on flavonoids have mainly focused on their extraction, pharmacological effects, and component analysis and on the expression levels of the key genes involved. However, a systematic review summarizing the biosynthesis and regulatory mechanisms of ginkgo flavonoids is still lacking. Thus, this review was conducted to comprehensively introduce the biological characteristics, value, and utilization status of ginkgo; summarize the effects, biosynthetic pathways, and transcriptional regulation of flavonoids; and finally, discuss the factors (ecological factors, hormones, etc.) that regulate the biosynthesis of flavonoids in ginkgo. This review will provide a reference basis for future research on the biosynthesis and efficient utilization of flavonoids in ginkgo.

Learning spatiotemporal lip dynamics in 3D point cloud stream for visual voice activity detection

Visual voice activity detection (V-VAD) aims at identifying speech activities and measuring start/end moments in visual signal streams generated from the speaking-related biological modality. The visual cue is important counterpart of audio modality in noisy scenarios. Most of existing methods rely on 2D sequences, which suffer from limited robustness to variations of illumination and facial pose. This paper proposes a 3D V-VAD method based on lip dynamics modeling and learning spatiotemporal speaking lip representation in point cloud streams. We construct a lightweight temporal speaking dynamics model DualDyn to represent dual dynamics of global lip structure and local lip context in 4D spatiotemporal domain. The activity moment detection is formulated as frame-level state classification and refined by behavior continuity. Our method was verified on a public dataset S3DFM and achieves a state-of-the-art accuracy of 22.6ms and higher efficiency in measuring activity moments. Ablation studies demonstrate the robustness and applicability of our method.

Cross-modal exposure restores multisensory enhancement after hemianopia.

Hemianopia is a common consequence of unilateral damage to visual cortex that manifests as a profound blindness in contralesional space. A noninvasive cross-modal (visual-auditory) exposure paradigm has been developed in an animal model to ameliorate this disorder. Repeated stimulation of a visual-auditory stimulus restores overt responses to visual stimuli in the blinded hemifield. It is believed to accomplish this by enhancing the visual sensitivity of circuits remaining after a lesion of visual cortex; in particular, circuits involving the multisensory neurons of the superior colliculus. Neurons in this midbrain structure are known to integrate spatiotemporally congruent visual and auditory signals to amplify their responses, which, in turn, enhances behavioral performance. Here we evaluated the relationship between the rehabilitation of hemianopia and this process of multisensory integration. Induction of hemianopia also eliminated multisensory enhancement in the blinded hemifield. Both vision and multisensory enhancement rapidly recovered with the rehabilitative cross-modal exposures. However, although both reached pre-lesion levels at similar rates, they did so with different spatial patterns. The results suggest that the capability for multisensory integration and enhancement is not a pre-requisite for visual recovery in hemianopia, and that the underlying mechanisms for recovery may be more complex than currently appreciated.

Effects of signalling mechanisms on cognitive engagement with educational videos in informal learning on social media

ABSTRACT The proliferation of videos with educational purposes on social media offers unprecedented opportunities for informal learning in virtual space. Yet, research on learner engagement with educational videos in informal learning on social media has been scarce, despite its central role in learning. This study addresses this research gap. Specifically, we investigate how signalling mechanisms (signals and anchors) affect cognitive engagement. We sample YouTube educational videos and analyse the effects of signals and anchors on cognitive engagement on Reddit. Our analyses show that different signals and anchors affect cognitive engagement differently. Textual signals positively associate with cognitive engagement, while visual signals do not. Mathematical models are negatively related to cognitive engagement, and physical models are not correlated with cognitive engagement significantly. Our findings provide valuable empirical knowledge on cognitive engagement with educational videos on social media. This study enriches the understanding of signalling mechanisms and extends the literature on educational videos and multimedia learning. It is also beneficial for video designers and developers to optimise cognitive engagement with the appropriate use of signals and anchors and make online experiences more engaging.

Compensatory saccade in the vestibular impaired monkey.

Loss of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) affects visual acuity during head movements. Patients with unilateral and bilateral vestibular deficits often use saccadic eye movements to compensate for an inadequate VOR. Two types of compensatory saccades have been distinguished, covert saccades and overt saccades. Covert saccades occur during head rotation, whereas overt saccades occur after the head has stopped moving. The generation of covert saccades is part of a central vestibular compensation process that improves visual acuity and suppresses oscillopsia. Understanding the covert saccade mechanism may facilitate vestibular rehabilitation strategies that can improve the patient's quality of life. To understand the brain mechanisms underlying covert saccades at the neural level, studies in an animal model are necessary. In this study, we employed non-human primates whose vestibular end organs are injured. We examined eye movement during the head-impulse test, which is a clinical test to evaluate the vestibulo-ocular reflex. During this test, the monkeys are required to fixate on a target and the head is rapidly and unexpectedly rotated to stimulate the horizontal semi-circular canals. Similar to human subjects, monkeys made compensatory saccades. We compared these saccades with catch-up saccades following a moving target that simulates the visual conditions during the head impulse test. The shortest latency of the catch-up saccades was 250 ms, which indicates that it requires at least 250 ms to induce saccades by a visual signal. The latency of some compensatory saccades is shorter than 250 ms during the head impulse test, suggesting that such short latency compensatory saccades were not induced visually. The peak velocity of the short latency saccades was significantly lower than that of longer latency saccades. The peak velocity of these longer latency saccades was closer to that of visually guided saccades induced by a stepping target. These results are consistent with studies in human patients. Thus, this study demonstrates, for the first time, compensatory covert saccades in vestibular impaired monkeys.

Deer management influences perception of avian plumage in temperate deciduous forests

Many animals use visual signals to communicate; birds use colorful plumage to attract mates and repel intruders. Visual signal conspicuousness is influenced by the lighting environment, which can be altered by human-induced changes. For example, deer-management efforts can affect vegetation structure and light availability. Whether these changes alter animal communication is still unknown. We investigated the effect of deer management on forest light and the contrast of understory birds against the forest background. We modeled visual perception using: (1) an ultraviolet-sensitive (UVS) avian model and plumage parameters representative of red, yellow, and blue birds (2) species-specific turkey visual and plumage parameters, and (3) individual-specific brown-headed cowbird visual and plumage parameters. Deer management led to greater light irradiance and lowered forest background reflectance. Management increased chromatic contrasts in the UVS model, primarily in deciduous forests and low understory, and across all habitat types in turkey and cowbird models. Deer management did not affect achromatic contrasts in the UVS model, but was associated with lower contrast in mixed forests for turkeys and across habitats for cowbirds. Together, this suggests that management of deer browsing is likely to impact visual signaling for a wide range of avian species. However, we also suspect that species- and individual-specific parameters increased the resolution of models, warranting consideration in future studies. Further work should determine if differences in visual perception translate to biologically relevant consequences. Our results suggest that, at least for some species, deer browsing and anthropogenic change may impose an evolutionary driver on visual communication.

Vestibular contribution to spatial encoding.

Determining the spatial relation between objects and our location in the surroundings is essential for survival. Vestibular inputs provide key information about the position and movement of our head in the three-dimensional space, contributing to spatial navigation. Yet, their role in encoding spatial localisation of environmental targets remains to be fully understood. We probed the accuracy and precision of healthy participants' representations of environmental space by measuring their ability to encode the spatial location of visual targets (Experiment 1). Participants were asked to detect a visual light and then walk towards it. Vestibular signalling was artificially disrupted using stochastic galvanic vestibular stimulation (sGVS) applied selectively during encoding targets' location. sGVS impaired the accuracy and precision of locating the environmental visual targets. Importantly, this effect was specific to the visual modality. The location of acoustic targets was not influenced by vestibular alterations (Experiment 2). Our findings indicate that the vestibular system plays a role in localising visual targets in the surrounding environment, suggesting a crucial functional interaction between vestibular and visual signals for the encoding of the spatial relationship between our body position and the surrounding objects.