Primary visual cortex (V1) in human has been the subject of many studies. However, little is known about its activity associated with visually induced self-motion illusion (vection). Literature suggests a reciprocal inhibition (RI) interaction between visual and vestibular system during vection. However, how activities in V1 will respond during the RI process is unclear. The current thesis tries to answer this question with the noninvasive electroencephalograph (EEG) measurement on human subjects. In particular, high-resolution event related potential (ERP) data were recorded from V1 to determine how V1’s activities will change when an optical flow stimulation in the periphery induces different feelings: vection or no vection.

Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, V1 related...[ Read more ]

Primary visual cortex (V1) in human has been the subject of many studies. However, little is known about its activity associated with visually induced self-motion illusion (vection). Literature suggests a reciprocal inhibition (RI) interaction between visual and vestibular system during vection. However, how activities in V1 will respond during the RI process is unclear. The current thesis tries to answer this question with the noninvasive electroencephalograph (EEG) measurement on human subjects. In particular, high-resolution event related potential (ERP) data were recorded from V1 to determine how V1’s activities will change when an optical flow stimulation in the periphery induces different feelings: vection or no vection.

Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, V1 related ERP responses under two circular vection (CV) and one linear vection (LV) conditions (with similar vection intensity) were studied while Experiment 2 studied V1 related ERP responses in two LV conditions (with different vection intensity). Result showed a positive correlation between vection intensity/duration and the ERP component amplitude difference (component in no vection condition minus component in vection condition) for LV induced by stimuli moving from left to right at 45°/s. The stronger the vection, the bigger the amplitude difference between no-vection and vection. The ‘feedback regulation’ from extrastriate cortex during vection may explain our finding in a linear way while the ‘attention control’ may also play a part non-linearly. Detailed discussion was reported in the thesis.