Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

This title is realy poorly written

I have never heard of the term "body pitch". What is it referring to? Is it the angle someone leans because they are on an incline?

This sounds a lot like Somatogravic and Somatogyral Illusions.

> When sensory stimulation from the angular motion of the head and of the aircraft occur simultaneously in two different planes - for example interrupting looking ahead to look up to an overhead panel whilst the aircraft is also in angular motion.

Looks a bit like a Google translation.

[removed]

I’m going to guess this might explain why those posters on the escalators to the London Underground never look vertical ( although I think it’s more likely a visual effect caused by the adjacent diagonal lines)

OP is not a native English speaker, most of his titles end up weird like that. Usually he writes "researches" but it looks like he figured out the difference :-)

[removed]

More or less. It's more like knowing where your head and body are in relation to the surfaces you are interacting with, i.e. the floor and the walls.

Want to test how good yours is? Take a thick cushion off of a chair or couch. Place it on the floor, far away from things, in case you fall over during the test. Now, stand on it, with your feet almost shoulder-width apart. Close your eyes. And just stand there. Feel how much your body has to react to the non-stable surface, without visual cues. Don't hold onto anything and don't put your arms out to balance yourself.

This was one of the tests they made me do for my diagnosis. My wobble was "extensive enough to warrant further testing". A bit of wobble is normal. I almost fell off the cushion thing, twice. That test was less than 60 seconds.

It's best if you have someone to watch you so they can document how much you wobble. Preferably, a physical therapist or neurologist who knows about equilibrium problems.

What were you diagnosed with?

I am a physical therapist but haven't ever heard it called that.

What is it usually called?

Yep, those illusions have killed a lot of pilots driving the plane down into the ground thinking they were about to stall or vice versa. Move your head quickly after rotating on a 0/0 takeoff and take your eyes off the gauges and you’ll bet your life on the wrong direction of travel of where the plane is going.

Yeah first thing I thought was I have no clue what was said.

We simply refer to it as LOB, loss of balance and the attempt to regain midline either balance or equilibrium reaction. I can see how the term pitch could fit the action of being displaced.

In this study it doesn't seem like a sudden unexpected change in displacement but a response to the incline which we'd usually call a righting reaction, assuming that is what they mean by pitch in the study. Trying to confirm so I know I'm understanding it correctly.

edit: rereading it I believe by body pitch they mean the extent the person is leaning backwards so their head/upper body is posterior to the vertical axis. That would make sense since they used the dental chair to create "pitch" without movement.

Thanks! TIL!

I added this edit if you didn't see it:

rereading it I believe by body pitch they mean the extent the person is leaning backwards so their head/upper body is posterior to the vertical axis. That would make sense since they used the dental chair to create "pitch" without movement.

Thanks again!

Pitch, yaw, and roll, are the terms used for the 3 different possible rotational motions in 3d space. They are used in aeronautics and I expect other disciplines where these are important. Pitch is the motion your head makes if you nod it.

[removed]

Meniere's disease, early diagnosis due to debilitating migraines

I am intrigued by this study so back to comment again. I would think being able to position something vertically is related to our sense of gravity. Gravity is the one constant we all have in our sensorimotor development so it is interesting to find a set of circumstances where it is skewed. Also, noted that in the dental chair the head is supported while on the tram it is not. Wonder if that makes a difference.

My thoughts on where this is applicable is with children with significant motor development who are in wheelchairs, often reclined and are then pushed by others. Or those that can use a power chair but are in slightly reclined position. They may be better off if they can tolerate a more upright position (maybe a new health insurance justification for more therapy). They would be in this circumstance longer than someone on a tram, usually a whole school day once they are school age. I wonder if there is a lasting impact on their relationship/experience of gravity and the vertical.

Anyway, just some thoughts I had. Thanks for posting the study.

I wondered the same thing. In terms of our body on inclines. Was hoping for a hack to improve my skiing on black diamond runs. .It's crazy how steep the runs are and you have no idea until you look uphill to gain some perspective of the grade percentage or slope during the decent. Photos I've taken illustrate some scarey angles.

I think this study was dependent on people reclining back as they are going up the incline. Without head support I wonder how many people stay completely reclined or "pitched" backwards. There is a natural reaction to want to right your head unless supported.

Skiing is interesting because it is actually the opposite. There is a decline while you are leaning forward with your upper body. However, with that lean forward you are still lined up over your base of support because of the flexion in your legs. In the experiment the upper body is out of that alignment over the lower body.

It would be interesting to have them use the vertical pole with skiers and see what the results are. I am guessing they would still be accurate but who knows.

Thank you for that perspective. You make a good point about the decline and leaning forward. Physics keeps us from toppling over, but it's quite a steep line on the descent.

Your pelvis, relatively the center of mass, moving backwards and lower really balances you on the slopes. The leaning forward with the upper body is already coming from a posterior position.

I love watching skiers especially on moguls. I used to ski myself until I moved to Wisconsin. The little bunny hills aren't worth the lift line.

I thought ur comments sounded like they were coming from a skier. Mogel skiers have some skillz. Fun to watch. I'm from Michigan iriginally.....I get it

ooh i really love this one, actually a new concept to me for once, and an interesting one

Maybe, menieres disease is over diagnosed at a rate of ~10x. If you suffer from migraines and dizziness, research "vestibular migraines"

Part from skier, part from being a physical therapist fascinated with biomechanics

Came to post this. It is a well known and studied phenomenon. There's even a Bayesian explanation, from like fifteen years ago.

I also detected your science brain and smarts. Which I failed to mention.

Amazon prime 767 crash excellent example, on video too.

The approach was stable but the FO sensed a stall and pushed the nose down into the Everglades

[removed]