Impact of gravity on the perception of linear motion

Accurate perception of gravity and translation is fundamental for balance, navigation, and motor control. Previous studies have reported that perceptual thresholds for earth-vertical (i.e., parallel to gravity) and earth-horizontal (i.e., perpendicular to gravity) translations are equivalent in healthy adults, suggesting that the nervous system compensates for the presence of gravity. However, past study designs were not able to fully separate the effect of gravity from the potential effects of motion direction and body orientation. To quantify the effect of gravity on translation perception relative to these alternative factors, we measured vestibular perceptual thresholds for three motion directions (inter-aural, naso-occipital, and superior-inferior) and three body orientations (upright, supine, and ear-down). In contrast to prior reports, our data suggest that the nervous system does not universally compensate for the effects of gravity during translation, instead, we show that the colinear effect of gravity significantly decreases the sensitivity to stimuli for motions sensed by the utricles (inter-aural and naso-occipital translation), but this effect was not significant for motions sensed by the saccules (superior-inferior translations). We also identified increased thresholds for superior-inferior translation, suggesting decreased sensitivity of motions sensed predominantly by the saccule. An overall effect of body orientation on perception was seen; however, post hoc analyses suggest that this orientation effect may reflect the impact of gravity on self-motion perception. Overall, our data provide fundamental insights into the manner by which the nervous system processes vestibular self-motion cues, showing that the effect of gravity on translation perception is impacted by the direction of motion. 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 motion relative to gravity and motion 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.