• Iole Indovina, Vincenzo Maffei, Gianfranco Bosco, Myrka Zago, Emiliano Macaluso, and Francesco Lacquaniti.
• Department of Neuromotor Physiology, Scientific Institute Foundation Santa Lucia, via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy.
• Science. 2005 Apr 15; 308 (5720): 416-9.

AbstractHow do we perceive the visual motion of objects that are accelerated by gravity? We propose that, because vision is poorly sensitive to accelerations, an internal model that calculates the effects of gravity is derived from graviceptive information, is stored in the vestibular cortex, and is activated by visual motion that appears to be coherent with natural gravity. The acceleration of visual targets was manipulated while brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In agreement with the internal model hypothesis, we found that the vestibular network was selectively engaged when acceleration was consistent with natural gravity. These findings demonstrate that predictive mechanisms of physical laws of motion are represented in the human brain.

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