Chapter 7 Visual-Motor Control in Altered Gravity

Publisher Summary Human perception and performance are affected by changes in the magnitude of the gravitational-inertial environment. The extra weight of the limbs during exposure to hypergravity (muscle loading) causes initial (ballistic) reaching responses to be too low, whereas the reduced weight of the limbs during exposure to hypogravity (muscle unloading) causes them to be too high. If a visual target is viewed in an otherwise dark setting under altered gravitational-inertial conditions, the elevator illusion will also occur and will induce target-pointing errors opposite in direction from those caused by muscle loading/unloading. This chapter examines the effects of alternating hypogravity and hypergravity, as produced by parabolic flight, on open-loop target-pointing. The results exhibit that adaptation is specific to those conditions under which motor-sensory feedback is provided; the subjects who pointed at the target during the hypogravic phase, but were passive during the hypergravic phase, adapted only to the hypogravic condition; likewise, the subjects who pointed at the target only during the hypergravic phase adapted to that condition. In both cases, the adaptation is based on an elimination of the effects of muscle loading/unloading.

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