Space is the substrate of our lives. The perception of space is the basis for our actions. We learn to act in space and adapt our perception when sensory access to space is altered, for example by injury or degeneration, but also during healthy aging, for example when we develop the need to wear glasses. PLACES investigates how our perceptual space changes with sensorimotor interactions. We study how the representation of space in the brain is calibrated by eye, arm and body movements and use virtual reality (VR) to simulate altered sensory states. We think of VR as both a tool for research and a technology to benefit society in the future. As people will increasingly use VR for work, pleasure and social interactions it is imperative to understand how sensorimotor interactions in VR affect spatial perception in VR and in RR, the Real Reality of actual space. Since perceptual space has been shown to be plastic under sensorimotor interactions, altered sensorimotor contingencies in VR are expected to shape perception in VR and potentially in RR, which might pose problems for long-term VR exposure. We will use VR as a tool to better understand the mechanisms, limitations, and consequences of perceptual plasticity. At the same time, knowledge about perceptual mechanisms and their reliance on sensorimotor contingencies will be essential for the continuing development of VR as a technology. For example, limitations and illusions of self-motion perception have been employed to increase the perceived range of walkable space in VR over the physical space limitations of RR. Consumer grade VR head-mounted displays are now typically equipped with eye trackers to monitor gaze of the user. While this holds enormous potential for future applications, knowledge about the interactions of the oculomotor system with full 3D space perception and with the spatial direction of attention is required to fully exploit this potential. The proposed work in the present application is characterised by a deep link between real and virtual spaces, which we call the RR/VR cycle. We will use this link to study the control of eye-, arm- and self-motion in the brain on the perceptual and physiological level, to study perceptual plasticity in VR and RR based on novel sensorimotor contingencies that can only be introduced in VR, and to advance technological use of VR for social interaction and for simulation processes in the development of RR vision aids.
