Self-Motion Perception During Locomotor Recalibration: More Than Meets the Eye

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2005-06, Vol.31 (3), p.398-419
• Main Authors: Durgin, Frank H, Pelah, Adar, Fox, Laura F, Lewis, Jed, Kane, Rachel, Walley, Katherine A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity levels. Psychomotricity; Adaptation, Psychological; Adjustment (to Environment); Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Cues; Experiments; Feedback; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Human Body; Humans; Kinesthesis; Locomotion; Motion; Motion Perception; Motor Processes; Psychological Theory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor activities; Psychomotor Performance; Running; Task Analysis; Transfer (Psychology); Visual Feedback; Visual Perception; Walking
• ISSN: 0096-1523; 1939-1277
• DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.31.3.398

Do locomotor aftereffects depend specifically on visual feedback? In 7 experiments, 116 college students were tested, with closed eyes, at stationary running or at walking to a previewed target after adaptation, with closed eyes, to treadmill locomotion. Subjects showed faster inadvertent drift during stationary running and increased distance (overshoot) when walking to a target. Overshoot seemed to saturate (i.e., reach a ceiling) at 17% after as little as 1 min of adaptation. Sidestepping at test reduced overshoot, suggesting motor specificity. But inadvertent drift effects were decreased if the eyes were open and the treadmill was drawn through the environment during adaptation, indicating that these effects involve self-motion perception. Differences in expression of inadvertent drift and of overshoot after adaptation to treadmill locomotion may have been due to different sets of ancillary cues available for the 2 tasks. Self-motion perception is multimodal.