Perception of hand motion direction uses a gravitational reference

We studied possible frames of reference for kinesthetic perception of imposed hand motion direction in the frontal plane in ten young adult subjects with no history of neuromuscular disease. In one experiment, subjects were instructed to set unseen hand motion imposed by a motorized linear slide device parallel to the trunk-fixed longitudinal axis, seven visually specified axes and vertical (gravitational axis) while in a standard erect head/trunk posture and with head/trunk orientation varied. The visually specified axes were presented on a head-mounted display that also blocked vision of the external environment. In a second experiment using the same device, subjects set unseen hand motion parallel to vertical and to subjective oblique directions of 45° clockwise (cw) and counter clockwise (ccw) from vertical in erect and varied head/trunk postures. Errors for setting hand motion to vertical and to verbally specified oblique axes (45° cw and ccw from vertical) were lower than to the trunk longitudinal axis and visually specified axes. There were clear oblique effects in setting hand motion to visually specified axes and to subjective oblique (45° cw and ccw) axes. When head and trunk orientation were varied, variable errors were higher for all axes, but remained lowest for vertical and subjective oblique axes. Moreover, errors for setting hand motion to all axes depended on head/trunk orientation. Overall, these results show that kinesthetic perception of imposed hand motion uses a subjective gravitational frame of reference that varies somewhat with head/trunk orientation.