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Abstract:
Here we investigated whether gravitational constraints influence the interaction of visual, proprioceptive and vestibular cues for Biological Motion Perception (BMP). Participants were asked to distinguish between plausible and random point-light movements, while passively placed in either an upright or a tilted body orientation using a human 3D tilting table, leading to different gravitational signals transmitted by the visual, proprioceptive and vestibular systems. Participants were overall faster in distinguishing plausible point-light movements than random movements. Critically response times for biologically plausible point-light movements - but not for random movements - were significantly prolonged in the tilted body orientation. Our results suggest that BMP depends not only on the spatial-temporal cues embedded in a point-light movements dictated by gravity, but also rely on the congruency between current gravitational signals detected by the sensory systems and our previous knowledge of terrestrial gravity.
