September 2021
Volume 21, Issue 9
Open Access
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   September 2021
Influence of tactile flow on visual heading perception
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Lisa Rosenblum
    Philipps-University Marburg
    Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus Liebig Universität Giessen, Germany
  • Elisa Grewe
    Philipps-University Marburg
  • Jan Churan
    Philipps-University Marburg
    Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus Liebig Universität Giessen, Germany
  • Frank Bremmer
    Philipps-University Marburg
    Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus Liebig Universität Giessen, Germany
  • Footnotes
    Acknowledgements  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB/TRR-135 project number: 222641018, A2 and IRTG-1901)
Journal of Vision September 2021, Vol.21, 1915. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.21.9.1915
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      Lisa Rosenblum, Elisa Grewe, Jan Churan, Frank Bremmer; Influence of tactile flow on visual heading perception. Journal of Vision 2021;21(9):1915. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.21.9.1915.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

The integration of information from different sensory modalities is crucial for successful navigation through an environment. For example, self-motion produces distinct optic flow patterns on the retina, vestibular signals and tactile flow, which help to determine travelled distance or heading direction. We recently showed that visual and tactile information interact in a path integration task (Churan et al., J.Neurophysiol., 2017). Responses had higher precision in a bimodal as compared to unimodal conditions. Here, we investigate the influence of task-irrelevant tactile flow on visual heading perception. We simulated self-motion across a ground plane in different forward directions. Visual stimuli (optic flow) covered the central 81° x 66° of the visual field. Tactile stimuli were delivered by air flows from head-mounted nozzles. In a block of trials, tactile and visual stimuli were presented simultaneously for 500 ms, either simulating congruent heading or with an offset of the tactile flow within +/-40° of the visual heading. Participants had to report the perceived visual heading. In two other blocks of trials, subjects performed the heading task for purely visual or tactile stimuli. Heading in both, the bimodal and the two unimodal conditions, revealed a central bias, i.e., heading directions were perceived as compressed towards straight-ahead. Combination of congruent visual and tactile heading cues did not result in an improved precision of heading estimates as compared to the unimodal conditions, indicating non-optimal signal integration in a Bayesian sense. Nevertheless, we found a systematic influence of tactile heading cues on visually perceived headings if the headings represented by the two modalities were closer than 16°. In such case, visual heading perception revealed a significant bias towards the behaviorally irrelevant tactile heading. The spatial properties of multisensory neurons in the functional equivalent of macaque area VIP in humans are compatible with our results.

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