The body schema and the multisensory representation(s) of peripersonal space

By Nicholas P. Holmes, Charles Spence. Cognitive Processing, 2004

639 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To guide the movement of the body through space, the brain must constantly monitor the position and movement of the body in relation to nearby objects. The effective piloting of the body to avoid or manipulate objects in pursuit of behavioural goals requires an integrated neural representation of the body (the ‘body schema’) and of the space around the body (‘peripersonal space’). In the review that follows, we describe and evaluate recent results from neurophysiology, neuropsychology, and psychophysics in both human and non-human primates that support the existence of an integrated representation of visual, somatosensory, and auditory peripersonal space. Such a representation involves primarily visual, somatosensory, and proprioceptive modalities, operates in body-part-centred reference frames, and demonstrates significant plasticity. Recent research shows that the use of tools, the viewing of one’s body or body parts in mirrors, and in video monitors, may also modulate the visuotactile representation of peripersonal space.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8b53b3fc0fb152235126c92479d0570a82974f9b

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Citations in the corpus

Revisiting the definition of animal tool use (2008, result): “…monkeys engaged in tool-using tasks (Iriki et al. 1996) have found evidence that such an integration of a tool into the user’s internal representation of its own body does indeed occur, while Holmes & Spence (2004), using less invasive techniques, have found similar results in human studies.”
Mediated social touch: a review of current research and future directions (2006, neutral): “, collision) and other people (see [1]).”
Beads for a Plastic Mind: the ‘Blind Man's Stick’ (BMS) Hypothesis and the Active Nature of Material Culture (2008, background): “…the shell bead extends ‘peripersonal space’ — i.e. the brain’s representation of the body and of the space surrounding the body (Holmes & Spence 2006; Holmes et al. 2004, 62; Holmes & Spence 2004; Maravita & Iriki 2004; Maravita et al. 2001; Maravita et al. 2002; Berti & Frassinetti 2000).”
Language as a Tool for Interacting Minds (2010, background): “1 In a series of recent experiments it has been shown that humans (as well as monkeys) project around them an immediate multisensory periphery in which aspects of the material environment can potentially be grasped and manipulated (Làdavas, 2002; Holmes and Spence, 2004)”