If you’re like me, one of the first things you do when booting up a game is checking out the options in the Settings menu. From audio to subtitles, brightness to performance, you’re fine-tuning the particulars to ensure the game is playing just right for you. Maybe during this, you’re also changing your controller settings from “normal” to “inverted,” and if you’ve ever wondered why you do that, well, science may have an answer for you.
In a new scientific paper reported on by The Guardian (via Eurogamer), Dr. Jennifer Corbett and Dr. Jaap Munneke at Brunel University London have sought to study the neuroscience behind a player’s choice of “normal” or “inverted” controls. Titled “Why axis inversion? Optimising interactions between users, interfaces, and visual displays in 3D environments,” the duo discovered that there are a variety of factors that go into your decision of opting for a particular controller setting in games, and it seems to primarily revolve around how your brain perceives objects in 3D spaces.