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Abstract

In environments where orientation is ambiguous, the visual system uses prior knowledge about lighting coming from above to recognize objects, reorient the body, and determine which way is up (where is the sun?). It has been shown that when observers are tilted to the side relative to gravity, the orientation of the light-from-above prior will change in a direction between the orientation of the body, gravity and the visual surround. The contribution of ocular torsion in this change of the light-from-above prior has been acknowledged but not specifically addressed. Here we test the hypothesis that when lighting direction is the only available visual orientation cue, change in orientation of the light-from-above prior is accounted for by ocular torsion. Observers made convex-concave judgments of a central shaded disk, flanked by three similarly- and three oppositely-shaded disks. Lighting was tested every 15° in roll in the fronto-parallel plane. Observers were tested when upright, supine, and tilted every 30
° in role relative to gravity. Our results show that change of the light-from-above prior is well predicted from a sum of two sines; one consistent with predicted ocular torsion, the other consistent with an additional component varying with twice the frequency of body tilt.