Infants' sensitivity to effects of gravity on visible object motion.

Kim, In Kyeong; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

doi:10.1037/0096-1523.18.2.385

Cited by 71 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…But the motor system must store information about gravity: all land-dwelling creatures must plan movements that compensate for gravity. The developmental emergence of motor compensation for gravity (Von Hofsten and Spelke, 1985) occurs several months earlier than visual sensitivity to acceleration due to gravity (Kim and Spelke, 1992). At least, this order suggests that visual and motor information about gravity are acquired separately, and at most, this order supports the possibility that motor compensation for environmental forces may contribute to visual sensitivity to environmental forces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Motor Force Field Learning Influences Visual Processing of Target Motion

Brown¹,

Wilson²,

Goodale³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

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There are reciprocal connections between visual and motor areas of the cerebral cortex. Although recent studies have provided intriguing new insights, in comparison with volume of research on the visual control of movement, relatively little is known about how movement influences vision. The motor system is perfectly suited to learn about environmental forces. Does environmental force information, learned by the motor system, influence visual processing? Here, we show that learning to compensate for a force applied to the hand influenced how participants predicted target motion for interception. Ss trained in one of three constant force fields by making reaching movements while holding a robotic manipulandum. The robot applied forces in a null [null force field (NFF)], leftward [leftward force field (LFF)], or [rightward force field (RFF)] direction. Training was followed immediately with an interception task. The target accelerated from left to right and Ss's task was to stab it. When viewing time was optimal for prediction, the RFF group initiated their responses earlier and hit more targets, and the LFF group initiated their responses later and hit fewer targets, than the NFF group. In follow-up experiments, we show that motor learning is necessary, and we rule out the possibility that explicit force direction information drives how Ss altered their predictions of visual motion. Environmental force information, acquired by motor learning, influenced how the motion of nearby visual targets was predicted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Motor Force Field Learning Influences Visual Processing of Target Motion

Brown¹,

Wilson²,

Goodale³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

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show abstract

“…In particular, target objects are frequently accelerated by Earth gravity (1g ϭ 9.81 m/s 2 ), as in free-fall or projectile motion. Visual information about gravitational acceleration seems to contribute to perception of causality and naturalness of inanimate motion (Kim and Spelke 1992;Twardy and Bingham 2002), perception of distance and size of falling objects (Watson et al 1992), perception of biological motion (Troje and Westhoff 2006;Vallortigara and Regolin 2006), perception of human body postures (Lopez et al 2009), judgments of time intervals (Grealy et al 2004;Huber and Krist 2004), and manual interception of falling targets (Lacquaniti and Maioli 1989a,b;McIntyre et al 2001;Zago et al 2004). However, the brain substrates for processing visual gravitational motion are still incompletely understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Processing of Targets in Smooth or Apparent Motion Along the Vertical in the Human Brain: An fMRI Study

Maffei

Macaluso

Indovina

et al. 2010

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Neural substrates for processing constant speed visual motion have been extensively studied. Less is known about the brain activity patterns when the target speed changes continuously, for instance under the influence of gravity. Using functional MRI (fMRI), here we compared brain responses to accelerating/decelerating targets with the responses to constant speed targets. The target could move along the vertical under gravity (1g), under reversed gravity (Ϫ1g), or at constant speed (0g). In the first experiment, subjects observed targets moving in smooth motion and responded to a GO signal delivered at a random time after target arrival. As expected, we found that the timing of the motor responses did not depend significantly on the specific motion law. Therefore brain activity in the contrast between different motion laws was not related to motor timing responses. Average BOLD signals were significantly greater for 1g targets than either 0g or Ϫ1g targets in a distributed network including bilateral insulae, left lingual gyrus, and brain stem. Moreover, in these regions, the mean activity decreased monotonically from 1g to 0g and to Ϫ1g. In the second experiment, subjects intercepted 1g, 0g, and Ϫ1g targets either in smooth motion (RM) or in long-range apparent motion (LAM). We found that the sites in the right insula and left lingual gyrus, which were selectively engaged by 1g targets in the first experiment, were also significantly more active during 1g trials than during Ϫ1g trials both in RM and LAM. The activity in 0g trials was again intermediate between that in 1g trials and that in Ϫ1g trials. Therefore in these regions the global activity modulation with the law of vertical motion appears to hold for both RM and LAM. Instead, a region in the inferior parietal lobule showed a preference for visual gravitational motion only in LAM but not RM.

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“…The ability to detect gravitational acceleration in visual motion can be demonstrated early in life. Between 5 and 7 months, infants begin to implicitly expect a downwardly moving object to accelerate and an upwardly moving object to decelerate (10). Therefore, there is ample evidence that gravitational acceleration is taken into account in visual perception and interceptive responses.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, visually guided interceptions of objects falling under gravity are accurately timed (6)(7)(8), in contrast with interceptions of objects dropped in microgravity (9). Furthermore, visual gravity cues contribute to perception of causality and naturalness of motion (10,11) and to perception of distance and size for falling objects (12) or biological motion (13). Gravity cues also influence the realism of special effects in cinematography (12).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation of Visual Gravitational Motion in the Human Vestibular Cortex

Indovina

Maffei

Bosco

et al. 2005

Science

291

274

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How do we perceive the visual motion of objects that are accelerated by gravity? We propose that, because vision is poorly sensitive to accelerations, an internal model that calculates the effects of gravity is derived from graviceptive information, is stored in the vestibular cortex, and is activated by visual motion that appears to be coherent with natural gravity. The acceleration of visual targets was manipulated while brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In agreement with the internal model hypothesis, we found that the vestibular network was selectively engaged when acceleration was consistent with natural gravity. These findings demonstrate that predictive mechanisms of physical laws of motion are represented in the human brain.

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Infants' sensitivity to effects of gravity on visible object motion.

Cited by 71 publications

References 9 publications

Motor Force Field Learning Influences Visual Processing of Target Motion

Motor Force Field Learning Influences Visual Processing of Target Motion

Processing of Targets in Smooth or Apparent Motion Along the Vertical in the Human Brain: An fMRI Study

Representation of Visual Gravitational Motion in the Human Vestibular Cortex

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