title: Visual perceptions of head-fixed and trunk-fixed anterior/posterior axes.
abstract: The purpose of the present experiment was to determine the preferred visual "straight ahead" or anterior/posterior (a/p) axis at the perceptual level. The ability of 12 neurologically normal, young adult subjects to position a rod parallel to the head and trunk a/p axes while viewing eccentrically located visual targets were studied under six conditions: 1. fixed-subjects stood erect with the head aligned to the trunk and viewed a central target while visually aligning a hand-held rod to the head and trunk a/p axis. 2. eyes-subjects moved only their eyes to view eccentric targets and aligned the rod to the head and trunk a/p axis. 3. head-trunk-subjects viewed the eccentric targets by rotating the head about a vertical axis and aligned the rod to the trunk a/p axis. 4. head-head-subjects viewed the targets as in 3 and positioned the rod parallel to the head a/p axis. 5. trunk-head-subjects viewed the targets by rotating the trunk and head as a unit about the vertical axis and aligned the rod parallel to the head a/p axis (note that the head and trunk a/p axes were misaligned by the experimenter prior to target viewing). 6. trunk-trunk-subjects viewed targets as in 5 and positioned the rod parallel to the trunk a/p axis. Subjects performed 25-35 consecutive trials within each condition. Perceptual errors were similar for aligning the rod to the trunk and head a/p axes; however, moving the trunk produced much larger constant and variable perceptual errors than moving the head. In a second experiment, four subjects controlled the position of a lighted rod held by a robot arm in complete darkness. They were instructed to align the rod to either the head or trunk a/p axis under conditions similar to the fixed, head-trunk, and head-head tasks described above. Perceptual errors were much larger when aligning the rod to the head a/p axis than to trunk a/p axis when the head was moved. This shows that the trunk a/p axis is clearly preferred at the perceptual level when visual background cues are not present. These data strongly suggest that the visual coordinate system uses a trunk-fixed a/p axis to define the subjective straight-ahead direction and right/left position of a target. Implications of these findings for sensorimotor transformations in control of upper limb movements to visual targets are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise Science, University of Iowa, Towa City 52242, USA.
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Darling
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003624:Darkness; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006257:Head; D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting; D009068:Movement; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012371:Robotics; D013909:Thorax; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*