Journal of Vision· 2026Q2
The role of retinal flow in walking
- 2citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Ground-plane retinal flow, not wall texture, significantly straightened walking paths when visual direction was manipulated by prisms in VR.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Ground-plane retinal flow, not wall texture, straightened walking paths in a VR prism experiment.
- Full-scene texture also straightened paths, indicating the ground plane's dominance.
- Wall-only texture produced minimal path straightening.
- Findings suggest ground flow's importance for locomotion control and compensatory foot placement.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Both visual direction and optic flow have been implicated in walking toward a goal in experiments that use prisms to alter visual direction. However, prisms bias retinal flow patterns in ways that might affect the path chosen. We used a prism manipulation in virtual reality for goal-directed walking, where we manipulated the location of texture-defined flow as well as the direction of gaze. The addition of texture straightened paths, but primarily when it provided flow on the ground plane. Texture confined to the ground straightened paths similar to full-scene texture, whereas wall-only texture produced little straightening. This finding reveals a disproportionate contribution of motion generated on the ground plane to control locomotion, potentially reflecting higher retinal speeds and the prism-induced rotations in the lower visual field. This suggests that, when visual direction is manipulated by a prism, trajectories might result from unexpected motion patterns, leading to compensatory foot placement. Thus trajectories may be shaped by complex interactions between goal direction, gaze, and local retinal motion patterns.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Vision, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive NeuroscienceNeuroscience