Attentional demands of perception of passive self-motion in darkness.

摘要: The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant attentional resources are required accurately monitor changes in bodily orientation, using vestibular information. This question addressed firstly a dual-task paradigm which orientation perception tasks and speeded auditory tone discrimination task were carried out either singly or combination. For the active task, subjects seated darkness on motorised chair could be rotated about an earth-vertical axis. Following passive angular displacements, return their perceived starting position, joy-stick controlled motion. pushed hand-held button as fast possible when presented over headphones. When two combined, reaction times increased. Reaction time also increased simply asked fixate during rotation. A second experiment demonstrated that if attention occupied by performance demanding mental arithmetic rotation, accuracy subsequently repositioning origin declined, implying change had been less registered performing concurrent task. In combination, these findings indicate small but degree cognitive effort is necessary direction amplitude brief suppress vestibulo-ocular reflex eye movement. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.