scholarly journals Auditory roughness elicits defense reactions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Taffou ◽  
Clara Suied ◽  
Isabelle Viaud-Delmon
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Multisensory Information ◽  
Tactile Integration

AbstractAuditory roughness elicits aversion, and higher activation in cerebral areas involved in threat processing, but its link with defensive behavior is unknown. Defensive behaviors are triggered by intrusions into the space immediately surrounding the body, called peripersonal space (PPS). Integrating multisensory information in PPS is crucial to assure the protection of the body. Here, we assessed the behavioral effects of roughness on auditory-tactile integration, which reflects the monitoring of this multisensory region of space. Healthy human participants had to detect as fast as possible a tactile stimulation delivered on their hand while an irrelevant sound was approaching them from the rear hemifield. The sound was either a simple harmonic sound or a rough sound, processed through binaural rendering so that the virtual sound source was looming towards participants. The rough sound speeded tactile reaction times at a farther distance from the body than the non-rough sound. This indicates that PPS, as estimated here via auditory-tactile integration, is sensitive to auditory roughness. Auditory roughness modifies the behavioral relevance of simple auditory events in relation to the body. Even without emotional or social contextual information, auditory roughness constitutes an innate threat cue that elicits defensive responses.

scholarly journals Capturing the dynamics of peripersonal space by integrating sound propagation properties and expectancy effects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Hobeika ◽  
Marine Taffou ◽  
Thibaut Carpentier ◽  
Olivier Warusfel ◽  
Isabelle Viaud-Delmon
Keyword(s):  
Sound Propagation ◽  
Current Method ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Logarithmic Scale ◽  
List Type ◽  
Expectancy Effects ◽  
Near Space ◽  
Propagation Properties ◽  
Tactile Integration

AbstractHighlightsLogarithmically distributed auditory distances provides an apt granularity of PPSMeasuring expectation helps to interpret behavioral impact of audiotactile integrationTactile RTs follows a logarithmic decrease due to audiotactile integrationPeripersonal space is better characterized and quantified with this refinementBackgroundHumans perceive near space and far space differently. Peripersonal space, i.e. the space directly surrounding the body, is often studied using paradigms based on auditory-tactile integration. In these paradigms, reaction time to a tactile stimulus is measured in the presence of a concurrent auditory looming stimulus.New MethodWe propose here to refine the experimental procedure considering sound propagation properties in order to improve granularity and relevance of auditory-tactile integration measures. We used a logarithmic distribution of distances for this purpose. We also want to disentangle behavioral contributions of the targeted audiotactile integration mechanisms from expectancy effects. To this aim, we added to the protocol a baseline with a fixed sound distance.ResultsExpectation contributed significantly to overall behavioral responses. Subtracting it isolated the audiotactile effect due to the stimulus proximity. This revealed that audiotactile integration effects have to be tested on a logarithmic scale of distances, and that they follow a linear variation on this scale.Comparison with Existing Method(s)The granularity of the current method is more relevant, providing higher spatial resolution in the vicinity of the body. Furthermore, most of the existing methods propose a sigmoid fitting, which rests on the intuitive framework that PPS is an in-or-out zone. Our results suggest that behavioral effects follow a logarithmic decrease, thus a response graduated in space.ConclusionsThe proposed protocol design and method of analysis contribute to refine the experimental investigation of the factors influencing and modifying multisensory integration phenomena in the space surrounding the body.

scholarly journals The Interrelation Between Peripersonal Action Space and Interpersonal Social Space: Psychophysiological Evidence and Clinical Implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Coello ◽  
Alice Cartaud
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Body ◽  
Action Space ◽  
Space Representation ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Emotional Deficits

The peripersonal space is an adaptive and flexible interface between the body and the environment that fulfills a dual-motor function: preparing the body for voluntary object-oriented actions to interact with incentive stimuli and preparing the body for defensive responses when facing potentially harmful stimuli. In this position article, we provide arguments for the sensorimotor rooting of the peripersonal space representation and highlight the variables that contribute to its flexible and adaptive characteristics. We also demonstrate that peripersonal space represents a mediation zone between the body and the environment contributing to not only the control of goal-directed actions but also the organization of social life. The whole of the data presented and discussed led us to the proposal of a new theoretical framework linking the peripersonal action space and the interpersonal social space and we highlight how this theoretical framework can account for social behaviors in populations with socio-emotional deficits.

scholarly journals Testosterone administration in women increases the size of their peripersonal space

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Jane Masson ◽  
Donné van der Westhuizen ◽  
Jean-Paul Noel ◽  
Adala Michelle Prevost ◽  
Jack van Honk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Motor Processing ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Testosterone Administration ◽  
Tactile Integration

Peripersonal space (PPS) is the space immediately surrounding the body, conceptualised as a sensory-motor interface between body and environment. PPS size differs between individuals and contexts, with intrapersonal traits and states, as well as social factors having a determining role on the size of PPS. Testosterone plays an important role in regulating social-motivational behaviour and is known to enhance dominance motivation in an implicit and unconscious manner. We investigated whether the dominance-enhancing effects of testosterone reflect as changes in the representation of PPS in a within-subjects testosterone administration study in women (N=19). Participants performed a visuo-tactile integration task in a mixed-reality setup. Results indicated that the administration of testosterone caused a significant enlargement of participants’ PPS, suggesting that testosterone caused participants to implicitly appropriate a larger space as their own. These findings suggest that the dominance-enhancing effects of testosterone reflect at the level of sensory-motor processing in PPS.

scholarly journals Body–Space Interactions: Same Spatial Encoding but Different Influence of Valence for Reaching and Defensive Purposes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Chiara Spaccasassi ◽  
Chris H. Dijkerman ◽  
Angelo Maravita ◽  
Oscar Ferrante ◽  
Maartje C. de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Sensorimotor Cortex ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Negative Valence ◽  
Beta Power ◽  
Positive Valence ◽  
Task Goals

Abstract The space around our body, the so-called “peripersonal space,” is where interactions with nearby objects may occur. “Defensive space” and “Reaching space” respectively refer to two opposite poles of interaction between our body and the external environment: protecting the body and performing a goal-directed action. Here, we hypothesized that mechanisms underlying these two action spaces are differentially modulated by the valence of visual stimuli, as stimuli with negative valence are more likely to activate protective actions whereas stimuli with positive valence may activate approaching actions. To test whether such distinction in cognitive/evaluative processing exists between Reaching and Defensive spaces, we measured behavioral responses as well as neural activations over sensorimotor cortex using EEG while participants performed several tasks designed to tap into mechanisms underlying either Defensive (e.g., respond to touch) or Reaching space (e.g., estimate whether object is within reaching distance). During each task, pictures of objects with either positive or negative valence were presented at different distances from the participants' body. We found that Defensive space was smaller for positively compared with negatively valenced visual stimuli. Furthermore, sensorimotor cortex activation (reflected in modulation of beta power) during tactile processing was enhanced when coupled with negatively rather than positively valenced visual stimuli regarding Defensive space. On the contrary, both the EEG and behavioral measures capturing the mechanisms underlying Reaching space did not reveal any modulation by valence. Thus, although valence encoding had differential effects on Reaching and Defensive spaces, the distance of the visual stimulus modulated behavioral measures as well as activity over sensorimotor cortex (reflected in modulations of mu power) in a similar way for both types of spaces. Our results are compatible with the idea that Reaching and Defensive spaces involve the same distance-dependent neural representations of sensory input, whereas task goals and stimulus valence (i.e., contextual information) are implemented at a later processing stage and exert an influence on motor output rather than sensory/space encoding.

scholarly journals Maternal brain gain: enlarged representation of the peripersonal space in pregnancy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavia Cardini ◽  
Natalie Fatemi-Ghomi ◽  
Katarzyna Gajewska-Knapik ◽  
Victoria Gooch ◽  
Jane Elizabeth Aspell
Keyword(s):  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Third Trimester ◽  
Pregnancy And Postpartum ◽  
Maternal Brain ◽  
Multisensory Representation ◽  
Tactile Integration ◽  
The Brain

Our ability to maintain a coherent bodily self despite continuous changes within and outside our body relies on the highly flexible multisensory representation of the body, and of the space surrounding it: the peripersonal space (PPS). The aim of our study was to investigate whether during pregnancy - when extremely rapid changes in body size and shape occur - a likewise rapid plastic reorganization of the neural representation of the PPS occurs. We used an audio-tactile integration task to measure the PPS boundary at different stages of pregnancy. We found that in the second trimester of pregnancy and postpartum women did not show differences in their PPS size as compared to the control group (non-pregnant women). However, in the third trimester the PPS was larger than the controls' PPS and the shift between representation of near and far space was more gradual. We therefore conclude that during pregnancy the brain adapts to the sudden bodily changes, by expanding the representation of the space around the body. This may represent a mechanism to protect the vulnerable abdomen from injury from surrounding objects.

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.

Sameness of place and the senses

2021 ◽  
pp. 215-230
Author(s):  
Alisa Mandrigin ◽  
Matthew Nudds
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Single Location ◽  
The World ◽  
Multisensory Information ◽  
Content Of Experience

When we watch a film at the cinema, we typically experience the speech we hear as coming from the mouths of the actors depicted on the screen, rather than from the loudspeakers. This is an everyday example of the spatial ventriloquism effect. In this chapter, we are interested in what it is for things that we are aware of through different senses to appear to be in a single space, or even—as in spatial ventriloquism—at the same place. The answer may seem trivial: all that is required is that we pick out places in the different senses in the same way. However, as Millikan (1991, 2000) has argued, representing a single location in the same way is not the same as representing sameness of location. What we need, either instead of, or as well as, sameness of reference frame, is for sameness of place to be a part of the content of experience. Empirical evidence suggests that there exist peripersonal representations that encode multisensory information about the region of space that immediately surrounds the body. Their existence generates a puzzle for accounts of perception—namely, what is the relation between peripersonal representations that figure in empirical discussions and our everyday perceptual experience of ourselves and the world? Here we examine whether peripersonal space representations might play a role in our conscious awareness of the spatial relations between entities experienced in vision, audition, and touch.

scholarly journals Approaching threatening stimuli cause an expansion of defensive peripersonal space

2017 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 1927-1930 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Bufacchi
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Monitoring ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
Blink Reflex ◽  
The Body ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
Environmental Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Threatening Stimulus ◽  
Threatening Stimuli

When sudden environmental stimuli signaling threat occur in the portion of space surrounding the body (defensive peripersonal space), defensive responses are enhanced. Recently Bisio et al. (Bisio A, Garbarini F, Biggio M, Fossataro C, Ruggeri P, Bove M. J Neurosci 37: 2415–2424, 2017) showed that a marker of defensive peripersonal space, the defensive hand-blink reflex, is modulated by the motion of the eliciting threatening stimulus. These results can be parsimoniously explained by the continuous monitoring of environmental threats, resulting in an expansion of defensive peripersonal space when threatening stimuli approach.

scholarly journals Modulating Brain Rhythms of Pain using Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS)? A Sham-controlled Study in Healthy Human Participants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth S. May ◽  
Vanessa D. Hohn ◽  
Moritz M. Nickel ◽  
Laura Tiemann ◽  
Cristina Gil Ávila ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
The Body ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Autonomic Responses ◽  
Somatosensory Cortices ◽  
Pain Ratings ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Human Participants

AbstractPain protects the body. However, pain can also occur for longer periods without serving protective functions. Such chronic pain conditions are difficult to treat. Thus, a better understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms and new approaches for the treatment of pain are urgently needed. Here, we investigated a causal role of oscillatory brain activity for pain and explored the potential of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) as a new treatment approach for pain. To this end, we investigated whether tACS can modulate pain and pain-related autonomic activity in 29 healthy human participants using a tonic heat pain paradigm as an experimental model of chronic pain. In 6 recording sessions, participants received tACS over prefrontal or somatosensory cortices at alpha or gamma frequencies or sham tACS. During tACS, pain ratings and autonomic responses were collected. TACS did not modulate pain intensity, the stability of pain ratings or the translation of the noxious stimulus into pain. Likewise, tACS did not change autonomic responses. Bayesian statistics further indicated a lack of tACS effects in most conditions. The only exception was alpha tACS over somatosensory cortex where evidence for tACS effects was inconclusive. Taken together, the present study did not find significant tACS effects on tonic experimental pain in healthy human participants. However, considering the conceptual plausibility of using tACS to modulate pain and the urgent need for novel pain treatments, further tACS studies are warranted. Based on the present findings, such studies might apply refined stimulation protocols targeting alpha oscillations in somatosensory cortices.

Individual Differences in the Flexibility of Peripersonal Space

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel B. Hunley ◽  
Arwen M. Marker ◽  
Stella F. Lourenco
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Laser Pointer ◽  
Baseline Measure ◽  
Bisection Task ◽  
Defensive Function ◽  
Representational Space ◽  
Laser Condition ◽  
Line Bisection Task

Abstract. The current study investigated individual differences in the flexibility of peripersonal space (i.e., representational space near the body), specifically in relation to trait claustrophobic fear (i.e., fear of suffocating or being physically restricted). Participants completed a line bisection task with either a laser pointer (Laser condition), allowing for a baseline measure of the size of one’s peripersonal space, or a stick (Stick condition), which produces expansion of one’s peripersonal space. Our results revealed that individuals high in claustrophobic fear had larger peripersonal spaces than those lower in claustrophobic fear, replicating previous research. We also found that, whereas individuals low in claustrophobic fear demonstrated the expected expansion of peripersonal space in the Stick condition, individuals high in claustrophobic fear showed less expansion, suggesting decreased flexibility. We discuss these findings in relation to the defensive function of peripersonal space and reduced attentional flexibility associated with trait anxieties.

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