Human emotional expression and the peripersonal margin of safety

2021 ◽  
pp. 315-330
Author(s):  
Michael S.A. Graziano
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Relationship ◽  
Buffer Zone ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
Protective Mechanisms ◽  
Margin Of Safety ◽  
Self Protection ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Protective Behaviours

The brain evolved to give special representation to the space immediately around the body. One of the most obvious adaptive uses of that peripersonal space is self-protection. It is a safety buffer zone, and intrusions can trigger a suite of protective behaviours. Perhaps less obvious is the possible relationship between that complex protective mechanism and social signalling. Standing tall, cringing, power poses and handshakes, even coquettish tilts of the head that expose the neck, may all relate in some manner to that safety buffer, signalling to others that one’s protective mechanisms are heightened (when anxious) or reduced (when confident). Here I propose that some of our most fundamental human emotional expressions such as smiling, laughing, and crying may also have a specific evolutionary relationship to the buffer zone around the body, deriving ultimately from the reflexive actions that protect us.

Supplemental Session: The Problem of Chronic Pain

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-112
Author(s):  
Bryan D. Carter ◽  
William G. Kronenberger ◽  
Eric L. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Recovery Program ◽  
The Brain

Chapter 11 provides supplemental material for teens whose chronic illness challenges involve major problems with chronic pain. While pain is a necessary protective mechanism of the body, chronic pain involves complex interactions between the nervous system, the brain, our emotions, and various situational factors that can actually make our experience of pain worse. The activities in this session are intended to help teens better understand these interactions and apply pain management strategies. Many of the coping strategies in the Children’s Health and Illness Recovery Program (CHIRP) have been shown to be effective in helping teens manage chronic pain more effectively so that they are able to more actively participate in the multiple areas so important to development.

scholarly journals Peripersonal Space and Margin of Safety around the Body: Learning Visuo-Tactile Associations in a Humanoid Robot with Artificial Skin

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. e0163713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Roncone ◽  
Matej Hoffmann ◽  
Ugo Pattacini ◽  
Luciano Fadiga ◽  
Giorgio Metta
Keyword(s):  
Humanoid Robot ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Artificial Skin ◽  
Margin Of Safety

scholarly journals From embodying tool to embodying alien limb: sensory-motor modulation of personal and extrapersonal space

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (S1) ◽  
pp. 121-126
Author(s):  
Anna Berti
Keyword(s):  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Alien Limb ◽  
Extrapersonal Space ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
The Brain

AbstractYears ago, it was demonstrated (e.g., Rizzolatti et al. in Handbook of neuropsychology, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 2000) that the brain does not encode the space around us in a homogeneous way, but through neural circuits that map the space relative to the distance that objects of interest have from the body. In monkeys, relatively discrete neural systems, characterized by neurons with specific neurophysiological responses, seem to be dedicated either to represent the space that can be reached by the hand (near/peripersonal space) or to the distant space (far/extrapersonal space). It was also shown that the encoding of spaces has dynamic aspects because they can be remapped by the use of tools that trigger different actions (e.g., Iriki et al. 1998). In this latter case, the effect of the tool depends on the modulation of personal space, that is the space of our body. In this paper, I will review and discuss selected research, which demonstrated that also in humans: 1 spaces are encoded in a dynamic way; 2 encoding can be modulated by the use of tool that the system comes to consider as parts of the own body; 3 body representations are not fixed, but they are fragile and subject to change to the point that we can incorporate not only the tools necessary for action, but even limbs belonging to other people. What embodiment of tools and of alien limb tell us about body representations is then briefly discussed.

Mining for survival genes

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1307-1309 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.L. Dawson ◽  
T.M. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
Protective Mechanisms ◽  
Central Nervous System Disorders ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
Gene And Protein Expression ◽  
The Brain

Many stressful, but not lethal, stimuli activate endogenous protective mechanisms that significantly decrease the degree of injury to subsequent injurious stimuli. This protective mechanism is termed preconditioning and tolerance. It occurs across organ systems including the brain and nervous system. Preconditioning has been investigated in cell and animal models and recently been shown to potentially occur in human brain. Learning more about these powerful endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms could help identify new approaches to treat patients with stroke and other central nervous system disorders or injury. Cell and animal models are helping us to better understand the network response of gene and protein expression that activates the neuroprotective response.

Do we represent peripersonal space?

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-154
Author(s):  
Colin Klein
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mathematical Basis ◽  
Plausible Account ◽  
The Brain

Work in both animals and humans has demonstrated that the brain specifically tracks the space near the body—the so-called ‘peripersonal space’ (PPS). These representations appear to be multimodal and expressed in body-centred coordinates. They also play an important role in defence of the body from threat, manual action within PPS, and the use of tools—the latter, notably, ‘extending’ PPS to encompass the tool itself. Yet different authors disagree about important aspects of these representations, including how many there are. I suggest that the questions about the nature and number of PPS representations cannot be separated from the question of the mathematical basis of the corresponding representational spaces. I distinguish cartographic from functional bases for representation, suggesting that the latter provides both a plausible account and support a single-representation view. I conclude with reflections on functional bases and what they show about representation in cognitive science.

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.

scholarly journals A Minimal Sense of Here-ness

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Frédérique de Vignemont ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Buffer Zone ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
External World ◽  
Perceptual System ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Tactile Sense ◽  
Sense Of Presence ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

In this paper, I give an account of a hitherto neglected kind of ‘here’, which does not work as an intentional indexical. Instead, it automatically refers to the immediate perceptual environment of the subject’s body, which is known as peripersonal space. In between the self and the external world, there is something like a buffer zone, a place in which objects and events have a unique immediate significance for the subject because they may soon be in contact with her. I argue that seeing objects as being here in a minimal sense means seeing them in the place in which the perceptual system expects the world and the body to collide. I further argue that this minimal notion of here-content gives rise to a tactile sense of presence. It provides a unique experiential access to the reality of the seen object by making us aware of its ability to have an effect on us.

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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