Impact of gravity on the perception of linear motion

Abstract

Perception of gravity and translation are fundamental for self-motion perception, balance, and motor control. The central nervous system must accurately disambiguate peripheral otolith signals encoding both linear acceleration and gravity. In contrast to past reports, we show that perception of translation depends on both motions relative to gravity and relative to the head. These results provide fundamental insights into otolith-mediated perception and suggest that the nervous system must compensate for the presence of gravity.