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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.