Visually-induced reorientation illusions as a function of age

We reported previously that supine subjects inside a furnished room who are tilted 90 degrees may experience themselves and the room as upright to gravity. We call this the levitation illusion because it creates sensations similar to those experienced in weightlessness. It is an example of a larger class of novel static reorientation illusions that we have explored. Stationary subjects inside a furnished room rotating about a horizontal axis experience complete self rotation about the roll or pitch axis. We call this a dynamic reorientation illusion. We have determined the incidence of static and dynamic reorientation illusions in subjects ranging in age from 9 to 78 yr. Some 90% of subjects of all ages experienced the dynamic reorientation illusion but the percentage of subjects experiencing static reorientation illusions increased with age. We propose that the dynamic illusion depends on a primitive mechanism of visual-vestibular interaction but that static reorientation illusions depend on learned visual cues to the vertical arising from the perceived tops and bottoms of familiar objects and spatial relationships between objects. Older people become more dependent on visual polarity to compensate for loss in vestibular sensitivity. Of 9 astronauts, I experienced the levitation illusion. The relationship between susceptibility to reorientation illusions on Earth and in space has still to be determined. We propose that the Space Station will be less disorienting ii pictures of familiar objects line the walls.