Visually-induced tilt during parabolic flights.
A helmet-mounted visual display system was used to study visually induced sensations of self-motion (vection) about the roll, pitch and yaw axes under normal gravity condition (1g) and during the microgravity and hypergravity phases of parabolic flights aboard the NASA KC-135 aircraft. Under each gravity condition, the following parameters were investigated: (1) the subject's perceived body vertical with eyes closed and with eyes open gazing at a stationary random dot display; (2) the magnitude of sensations of body tilt with respect to the subjective vertical, while the subject viewed displays rotating about the roll, pitch and yaw axes; (3) the magnitude of vection; (4) latency of vection. All eleven subjects perceived a definite "up and down" orientation throughout the course of the flight. During the microgravity phase, the average magnitudes of perceived body tilt and self-motion increased significantly, and there was no significant difference in vection latency. These results show that there is a rapid onset of increased dependence on visual inputs for perception of self-orientation and self-motion in weightlessness, and a decreased dependence on otolithic and somatosensory graviceptive information. Anti-motion sickness drugs appear not to affect the parameters measured.
Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science, York University, Ontario, Canada.
B S
BS
Cheung
I P
IP
Howard
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KE
Money
D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D005260:Female; D006112:Gravitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D011187:Posture; D012399:Rotation; D014794:Visual Fields; D014796:Visual Perception