Does response facilitation to visuo-tactile stimuli around a remote-controlled hand avatar reflect peripersonal space or attentional bias?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisuke Mine ◽  
Kazuhiko Yokosawa
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Response Facilitation ◽  
Tactile Stimuli

scholarly journals Peripersonal Space and Bodily Self-Consciousness: Implications for Psychological Trauma-Related Disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Rabellino ◽  
Paul A. Frewen ◽  
Margaret C. McKinnon ◽  
Ruth A. Lanius
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Psychological Trauma ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Role

Peripersonal space (PPS) is defined as the space surrounding the body where we can reach or be reached by external entities, including objects or other individuals. PPS is an essential component of bodily self-consciousness that allows us to perform actions in the world (e.g., grasping and manipulating objects) and protect our body while interacting with the surrounding environment. Multisensory processing plays a critical role in PPS representation, facilitating not only to situate ourselves in space but also assisting in the localization of external entities at a close distance from our bodies. Such abilities appear especially crucial when an external entity (a sound, an object, or a person) is approaching us, thereby allowing the assessment of the salience of a potential incoming threat. Accordingly, PPS represents a key aspect of social cognitive processes operational when we interact with other people (for example, in a dynamic dyad). The underpinnings of PPS have been investigated largely in human models and in animals and include the operation of dedicated multimodal neurons (neurons that respond specifically to co-occurring stimuli from different perceptive modalities, e.g., auditory and tactile stimuli) within brain regions involved in sensorimotor processing (ventral intraparietal sulcus, ventral premotor cortex), interoception (insula), and visual recognition (lateral occipital cortex). Although the defensive role of the PPS has been observed in psychopathology (e.g., in phobias) the relation between PPS and altered states of bodily consciousness remains largely unexplored. Specifically, PPS representation in trauma-related disorders, where altered states of consciousness can involve dissociation from the body and its surroundings, have not been investigated. Accordingly, we review here: (1) the behavioral and neurobiological literature surrounding trauma-related disorders and its relevance to PPS; and (2) outline future research directions aimed at examining altered states of bodily self-consciousness in trauma related-disorders.

Remapping Peripersonal Space by Using Foot-Sole Vibrations Without Any Body Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1522-1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomohiro Amemiya ◽  
Yasushi Ikei ◽  
Michiteru Kitazaki
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Motor Program ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rhythmic Pattern ◽  
Limited Space ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Soles Of The Feet

The limited space immediately surrounding our body, known as peripersonal space (PPS), has been investigated by focusing on changes in the multisensory processing of audio-tactile stimuli occurring within or outside the PPS. Some studies have reported that the PPS representation is extended by body actions such as walking. However, it is unclear whether the PPS changes when a walking-like sensation is induced but the body neither moves nor is forced to move. Here, we show that a rhythmic pattern consisting of walking-sound vibrations applied to the soles of the feet, but not the forearms, boosted tactile processing when looming sounds were located near the body. The findings suggest that an extension of the PPS representation can be triggered by stimulating the soles in the absence of body action, which may automatically drive a motor program for walking, leading to a change in spatial cognition around the body.

Peripersonal Space from a multisensory perspective: the distinct effect of the visual and tactile components of Visuo-Tactile stimuli

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddalena Beccherle ◽  
Stefania Facchetti ◽  
Francesca Villani ◽  
Marzia Zanini ◽  
Michele Scandola
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Repeated Measure ◽  
Monotonic Trend ◽  
Visual Component ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Measure Design ◽  
The Face ◽  
Specific Distance

Behavioural studies on Multisensory Peripersonal Space (PPS) representations are based on seminal findings in single-cell recordings.A classic experimental paradigm used to assess PPS is the Multisensory Integration Paradigm. In this paradigm Visuo-Tactile stimuli are administrated to participants. According to the paradigm, the tactile component vibrates when the visual component, approaching the participant, reaches a specific distance. Participants must detect the tactile component. Reaction times (RTs) are faster with closer visual stimuli. This effect is classically interpreted as a manifestation of PPS representation.However, the Visual and Tactile components are usually targeting at the same body part, and Tactile-Only RTs are considered constant.In this study we formally addressed two research questions: i) whether the Multisensory Visuo-Tactile RTs are independent from Tactile-Only RTs and whether the latter are influenced by time-dependency effects; and ii) whether PPS estimations derived from Multisensory Visuo-Tactile RTs depend on the location of the Visual or Tactile component of the stimuli.We studied 40 right-handed participants, in a repeated-measure design, crossing the position of the Tactile and Visual components of stimuli across the face, the hand and the foot, and 5 distances. Each trial could be Visuo-Tactile, Tactile-Only or a Catch trial.Frequentist and Bayesian analysis demonstrated that Tactile-Only RTs follow a non-monotonic trend, depending on the delay of stimulus administration. Furthermore, according to our findings, Visuo-Tactile RTs were proved to be dependent on Distance and location of the Visual component of the stimulus. Our results lead to the conclusion that Tactile-Only RTs should be removed from Visuo-Tactile RTs and that the Visual and Tactile components of Visuo-Tactile stimuli do not necessarily have to target at the same body part.These results may have an advantageous impact on the study of PPS representations, providing new and important methodological information.

Binding Personal and Peripersonal Space: Evidence from Tactile Extinction

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep Vaishnavi ◽  
Jesse Calhoun ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Sensorimotor Integration ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Neurophysiological Studies ◽  
Tactile Integration ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Representations Of Space

Behavioral and neurophysiological studies suggest that the brain constructs different representations of space. Among these representations are personal and peripersonal space. Personal space refers to the space occupied by our bodies. Peripersonal space refers to the space surrounding our bodies, which can be reached by our limbs. How these two representations are bound to give a unified sense of space in which humans act is not clear. We tested 10 patients with tactile extinction to investigate this issue. Tactile extinction is an attentional disorder in which patients are unaware of being touched on their contralesional limb if they are also touched simultaneously on their ipsilesional limb. We hypothesized that mechanisms that bind personal and peripersonal representations would improve these patients' awareness of being touched on their contralesional limbs. Visual-tactile integration and intentional movements were considered candidate mechanisms. Patients were more likely to be aware of contralesional touch when looking towards their contralesional limb than when looking towards their ipsilesional limb, and when actively moving on tactile probes than when receiving tactile stimuli passively. The improved awareness of being touched on the contralesional limb under these conditions suggests that cross-sensory and sensorimotor integration help bind personal and peripersonal space.

scholarly journals Touch automatically upregulates motor readiness in humans

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (6) ◽  
pp. 3121-3130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freek van Ede ◽  
Tobias Winner ◽  
Eric Maris
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Brain State ◽  
Healthy Humans ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Tactile Input ◽  
Motor Areas

Goal-directed movements require effective integration of tactile input with ongoing movement. Here we investigated the functional consequences of such integration in healthy humans by probing the influence of spatially congruent and incongruent tactile stimuli on performance in a speeded button-press task. In addition, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we evaluated whether the modulation of somato-motor beta (13–30 Hz) oscillations following tactile input—which has been shown to propagate to motor areas—could underlie this influence. We demonstrate that congruent tactile stimuli, despite being irrelevant to the motor task, lead to both faster and more accurate responses. We further show that this automatic upregulation of lateralized motor readiness 1) is specific to tactile input, 2) is independent of the spatial separation of the hands in peripersonal space, and 3) lasts (and remains facilitatory) for up to a second after the tactile input. This pattern of behavioral results is in line with recent physiological investigations showing that somatosensory and motor areas directly influence each other's processing capacity through joint changes in brain state. At the same time, however, the tactile-induced modulation of beta oscillations (one particular index of such a somato-motor state change) could not account for the observed movement facilitation, because it had a different time course.

scholarly journals Unconscious integration of multisensory bodily inputs in the peripersonal space shapes bodily self-consciousness

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Salomon ◽  
Jean-Paul Noel ◽  
Marta Łukowska ◽  
Nathan Faivre ◽  
Thomas Metzinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Virtual Body

AbstractRecent studies have highlighted the role of multisensory integration as a key mechanism of self-consciousness. In particular, integration of bodily signals within the peripersonal space (PPS) underlies the experience of the self in a body we own (self-identification) and that is experienced as occupying a specific location in space (self-location), two main components of bodily self-consciousness (BSC). Experiments investigating the effects of multisensory integration on BSC have typically employed supra-threshold sensory stimuli, neglecting the role of unconscious sensory signals in BSC, as tested in other consciousness research. Here, we used psychophysical techniques to test whether multisensory integration of bodily stimuli underlying BSC may also occur for multisensory inputs presented below the threshold of conscious perception. Our results indicate that visual stimuli rendered invisible (through continuous flash suppression) boost processing of tactile stimuli on the body (Exp. 1), and enhance the perception of near-threshold tactile stimuli (Exp. 2), only once they entered peripersonal space. We then employed unconscious multisensory mechanisms to manipulate BSC. Participants were presented with tactile stimulation on their body and with visual stimuli on a virtual body, seen at a distance, which were either visible or rendered invisible. We report that if visuo-tactile stimulation was synchronized, participants self-identified with the virtual body (Exp. 3), and shifted their self-location toward the virtual body (Exp.4), even if visual stimuli were fully invisible. Our results indicate that multisensory inputs, even outside of awareness, are integrated and affect the phenomenological content of self-consciousness, grounding BSC firmly in the field of psychophysical consciousness studies.

Visuo-tactile predictive mechanisms of peripersonal space

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
H.C. Dijkerman ◽  
W.P. Medendorp
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Bodily Contact ◽  
Predictive Mechanisms

Our daily living includes bodily contacts with objects and people. While this physical contact occurs naturally, it could also pose a risk of bodily harm—for example, when objects are sharp, or people have bad intentions. It is therefore imperative to have a mechanism that predicts the consequences of bodily contact before it occurs, to guide our interactions appropriately. Evidence from a range of studies suggests a neurofunctional coupling between external visual or auditory stimuli near the body and tactile stimuli on the body. While these multisensory peripersonal representations have been linked to spatial attention, motor control, and social behaviour, a discussion on whether these functions involve a similar mechanism has been missing. Here we suggest that prediction is central to this multimodal coding: visual or auditory stimuli near the body predict tactile consequences of bodily contact. This predictive mechanism is based on learned visuo-tactile associations and modulated by higher-order visual contextual information.

Seeing Your Own Touched Hands in a Mirror Modulates Cross-Modal Interactions

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Maravita ◽  
Charles Spence ◽  
Claire Sergent ◽  
Jon Driver
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Retinal Image ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Modal Interactions ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
True Source ◽  
Visual Distractors

In mirror reflections, visual stimuli in near peripersonal space (e.g., an object in the hand) can project the retinal image of far, extrapersonal stimuli “beyond” the mirror. We studied the interaction of such visual reflections with tactile stimuli in a cross-modal congruency task. We found that visual distractors produce stronger interference on tactile judgments when placed close to the stimulated hand, but observed indirectly as distant mirror reflections, than when directly observed in equivalently distant far space, even when in contact with a dummy hand or someone else's hand in the far location. The stronger visual-tactile interference for the mirror condition implies that near stimuli seen as distant reflections in a mirror view of one's own hands can activate neural networks coding peripersonal space, because these visual stimuli are coded as having a true source near to the body.

scholarly journals The ontogeny of multisensory peripersonal space in human infancy: From visual-tactile links to conscious expectations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Orioli ◽  
Irene Parisi ◽  
José L. van Velzen ◽  
Andrew J. Bremner
Keyword(s):  
Visual Motion ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Early Ontogeny ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
The Body ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
First Year Of Life

AbstractThe influence of visual object motion on the processing of bodily events offers a marker for the development of human infants’ perception of themselves in peripersonal space. We presented 4- (n = 20) and 8-month-old (n = 20) infants with an unattended visual object moving towards or away from their body followed by a vibrotactile stimulus on their hands. The 4-month-olds’ somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were modulated by approaching visual motion, demonstrating the early ontogeny of the cortical multisensory foundations of peripersonal space representations. We also observed rapid changes in these markers within the 8-month-old age group: as infants approach 9 months, salient SEP components were increasingly enhanced by (unexpected) tactile stimuli following receding visual motion. These findings provide important clues to the ontogeny of human self-awareness in the first year of life, and suggest important postnatal developments in infants’ expectations about interactions between the body and the external world.

Auditory Peripersonal Space in Humans

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1030-1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Farnè ◽  
Elisabetta Làdavas
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Representation ◽  
Tactile Stimulus ◽  
Specific Effect ◽  
Noise Burst ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Space Representation ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Neuropsychological Evidence

In the present study we report neuropsychological evidence of the existence of an auditory peripersonal space representation around the head in humans and its characteristics. In a group of right brain-damaged patients with tactile extinction, we found that a sound delivered near the ipsilesional side of the head (20 cm) strongly extinguished a tactile stimulus delivered to the contralesional side of the head (cross-modal auditory-tactile extinction). By contrast, when an auditory stimulus was presented far from the head (70 cm), cross-modal extinction was dramatically reduced. This spatially specific cross-modal extinction was most consistently found (i.e., both in the front and back spaces) when a complex sound was presented, like a white noise burst. Pure tones produced spatially specific cross-modal extinction when presented in the back space, but not in the front space. In addition, the most severe cross-modal extinction emerged when sounds came from behind the head, thus showing that the back space is more sensitive than the front space to the sensory interaction of auditory-tactile inputs. Finally, when cross-modal effects were investigated by reversing the spatial arrangement of cross-modal stimuli (i.e., touch on the right and sound on the left), we found that an ipsilesional tactile stimulus, although inducing a small amount of cross-modal tactile-auditory extinction, did not produce any spatial-specific effect. Therefore, the selective aspects of cross-modal interaction found near the head cannot be explained by a competition between a damaged left spatial representation and an intact right spatial representation. Thus, consistent with neurophysiological evidence from monkeys, our findings strongly support the existence, in humans, of an integrated cross-modal system coding auditory and tactile stimuli near the body, that is, in the peripersonal space.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document