ORA (Round 5): The active observer

每当我们移动时，眼睛后面的世界图像就会发生变化。尽管如此，我们的感知是一个不变的世界。大脑是如何将一个不断变化的图像转化为一个稳定的、静止的、僵化的世界？大脑是否使用外部环境的地图（一个“非中心地图”）和观察者在其中的位置，随着时间的推移而建立，来支撑稳定的感知？大脑是否会不断更新场景对象相对于观察者的位置地图（即“自我中心地图”，例如有一个物体在我的正前方，如果我向前走，我应该期待它靠近我）？难道大脑并没有创造出一张地图，而只是将图像运动划分为可能是由于观察者的运动（因此可以忽略）和可能是由于场景中物体的运动（这成为了注意力的焦点）吗？支撑这个研究项目的假设是，支撑感知稳定性的不是这些机制中的某一个，而是所有这些机制，它们的贡献取决于观察者正在执行的任务。在某些情况下，任务将需要快速估计以支持可能有利于一种机制的正在进行的行动，而在另一项任务中，时间不是那么关键，则可能更适合较慢但更准确的机制。这个合作项目结合了来自德国、荷兰和英国的心理学、运动科学和计算机方面的互补专业知识，重要的是，研究人员从不同的理论角度出发，将检验这一假设。我们将研究一系列不同的任务，这些任务对移动的观察者提出了一系列挑战。我们将利用各种创新的实验范式，利用最新的技术进步，如虚拟现实与同步运动跟踪相结合。了解感知稳定性的不同机制在哪里以及如何发挥作用，不仅促进了我们的科学理解，而且有可能告知工业界和医学界在现实或虚拟环境中可以最大限度地减少定向障碍或恶心的情况。

Every time we move, the image of the world at the back of the eye changes. Despite this, our perception is of an unchanging world. How does the brain translate a continually changing image into a percept of a stable, stationary, rigid world? Does the brain use a map of the external environment (an "allocentric map") and the position of the observer within it, built up over time, to underpin the perception of stability? Does the brain continually update a map of where scene objects are relative to the observer (an "egocentric map"; e.g. there is an object straight ahead of me, if I walk forward I should expect it to get closer to me)? Does the brain not create a map but just divide up the image motion into that which is likely due to movement of the observer (and which can consequently be ignored) and that which is likely due to objects moving within the scene (which become a focus of attention)? The hypothesis that underpins this research project is that it is not a single one of these mechanisms that underpins perceptual stability, but that all of them, their contribution dependent on the task being performed by the observer. In some cases the task will require a fast estimate to support an ongoing action which might favour one mechanism, on another task, where timing is not so critical, a slower, but more accurate, mechanism might be more appropriate. This collaborative project, which combines complementary expertise in Psychology, Movement Sciences, and Computing from Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and importantly, researchers that start from different theoretical perspectives, will test this hypothesis. We will study a diverse series of tasks that present a range of challenges to the moving observer. We will make use of various innovative experimental paradigms that exploit recent technological advances such as virtual reality combined with simultaneous motion tracking. Understanding where and how different mechanisms of perceptual stability play a role advances not only our scientific understanding, but also has the potential to inform industry as well as medicine about the circumstances in which disorientation or nausea in real or virtual environments can be minimised.