Seeming confines: Electrophysiological evidence of peripersonal space remapping following tool-use in humans

Ronga, Irene; Galigani, Mattia; Bruno, Valentina; Castellani, Nicolò; Sebastiano, Alice Rossi; Valentini, Elia; Fossataro, Carlotta; Neppi-Mòdona, Marco; Garbarini, Francesca

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2021.08.004

Cited by 13 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…On the one hand, this certainly emphasizes the already well-established role of the motor system in the mapping of PPS (eg, Refs. 4 , 12 , 56–60 ), recently extended also by Ronga and colleagues 27 who have provided the first electrophysiological evidence of tool-use dependent plasticity in the human brain, showing the involvement of the premotor frontal and parietal areas in the expansion of PPS. Obviously, our data represent the first behavioral evidence of the preserved PPS plasticity in schizophrenia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“… 12 , 17–19 ), including motor experiences such as the use of a tool in the far space that leads to the expansion of PPS boundaries. 20–24 From the electrophysiological studies on monkeys 23 , 25 to more recent evidence in humans, 24 , 26 , 27 it has emerged that the multisensory integration mechanisms underlie both the extension and plasticity of PPS phenomena. Evidence of significant abnormalities in PPS extension among schizophrenia patients is recently accumulating.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tool-use Extends Peripersonal Space Boundaries in Schizophrenic Patients

Ferroni

Ardizzi

Magnani

et al. 2022

Schizophrenia Bulletin

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Background and Hypothesis A primary disruption of the bodily self is considered a core feature of schizophrenia (SCZ). The “disembodied” self might be underpinned by inefficient body-related multisensory integration processes, normally occurring in the peripersonal space (PPS), a plastic sector of space surrounding the body whose extent is altered in SCZ. Although PPS is a malleable interface marking the perceptual border between self and others, no study has addressed the potential alteration of its plasticity in SCZ. We investigated the plasticity of PPS in SCZ patients after a motor training with a tool in the far space. Study Design Twenty-seven SCZ patients and 32 healthy controls (HC) underwent an audio-tactile task to estimate PPS boundary before (Session 1) and after (Session 3) the tool-use. Parameters of PPS, including the size and the slope of the psychometric function describing audio-tactile RTs as a function of the audio-tactile distances, were estimated. Study Results Results confirm a narrow PPS extent in SCZ. Surprisingly, we found PPS expansion in both groups, thus showing for the first time a preserved PPS plasticity in SCZ. Patients experienced a weaker differentiation from others, as indicated by a shallower PPS slope at Session 1 that correlated positively with negative symptoms. However, at Session 3, patients marked their bodily boundary in a steeper way, suggesting a sharper demarcation of PPS boundaries after the action with the tool. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of investigating the multisensory and motor roots of self-disorders, paving the way for future body-centred rehabilitation interventions that could improve patients’ altered body boundary.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tool-use Extends Peripersonal Space Boundaries in Schizophrenic Patients

Ferroni

Ardizzi

Magnani

et al. 2022

Schizophrenia Bulletin

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“…Understanding what are the mandatory features that our brain requires to allow a virtual environment to induce plastic change can greatly enhance the performativity of the designed environments. Indeed, although much is already known about the neural basis underlying the representation of PPS e.g., [ 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ], the neural mechanisms underlying the PPS plasticity elicited in real and virtual environments still remain to be well understood. The resulting increased concreteness of virtual environments may turn out to be of pivotal importance for the design of future learning, training, and rehabilitative protocols [ 62 , 63 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Remapping of Peripersonal Space in a Real but Not in a Virtual Environment

et al. 2022

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One of the most surprising features of our brain is the fact that it is extremely plastic. Among the various plastic processes supported by our brain, there is the neural representation of the space surrounding our body, the peripersonal space (PPS). The effects of real-world tool use on the PPS are well known in cognitive neuroscience, but little is still known whether similar mechanisms also govern virtual tool use. To this purpose, the present study investigated the plasticity of the PPS before and after a real (Experiment 1) or virtual motor training with a tool (Experiment 2). The results show the expansion of the PPS only following real-world tool use but not virtual use, highlighting how the two types of training potentially rely on different processes. This study enriches the current state of the art on the plasticity of PPS in real and virtual environments. We discuss our data with respect to the relevance for the development of effective immersive environment for trainings, learning and rehabilitation.

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“…If the "far" space is remapped as "near", the multisensory facilitation is the same for both spaces, so no difference between VTNear and VTFar is observed. Previous evidence already showed that the PPS representation can be plastically expanded following visuo-motor trainings 9,18,41 or multisensory illusions 42 , so that what was previously coded as "far" can become "near", being included within the PPS. Second, the absence of the spatial modulation of multisensory integration could be the result of an abolishment www.nature.com/scientificreports/ of the PPS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In nonhuman primates, bimodal neurons responding to both somatosensory and visual/auditory stimuli presented near to, but not far from, the body have been described within the intraparietal sulcus and the ventral premotor cortex [4][5][6][7] . In human studies, this space-dependent multisensory integration effect was observed both at the behavioral level, speeding up the response times (RTs) to tactile stimulation [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and at the neurophysiological level, with magnified electrophysiological responses for the integrated inputs [15][16][17][18][19][20] . As a consequence, multisensory integration responses are often considered to index the PPS extent, with multisensorydriven facilitations decreasing while the distance between the tactilely-stimulated body district and auditory/ visual stimulation increases 1,8,13 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory-driven facilitation within the peripersonal space is modulated by the expectations about stimulus location on the body

Sebastiano

Ronga

Fossataro

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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Compelling evidence from human and non-human studies suggests that responses to multisensory events are fastened when stimuli occur within the space surrounding the bodily self (i.e., peripersonal space; PPS). However, some human studies did not find such effect. We propose that these dissonant voices might actually uncover a specific mechanism, modulating PPS boundaries according to sensory regularities. We exploited a visuo-tactile paradigm, wherein participants provided speeded responses to tactile stimuli and rated their perceived intensity while ignoring simultaneous visual stimuli, appearing near the stimulated hand (VTNear) or far from it (VTFar; near the non-stimulated hand). Tactile stimuli could be delivered only to one hand (unilateral task) or to both hands randomly (bilateral task). Results revealed that a space-dependent multisensory enhancement (i.e., faster responses and higher perceived intensity in VTNear than VTFar) was present when highly predictable tactile stimulation induced PPS to be circumscribed around the stimulated hand (unilateral task). Conversely, when stimulus location was unpredictable (bilateral task), participants showed a comparable multisensory enhancement in both bimodal conditions, suggesting a PPS widening to include both hands. We propose that the detection of environmental regularities actively shapes PPS boundaries, thus optimizing the detection and reaction to incoming sensory stimuli.

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Seeming confines: Electrophysiological evidence of peripersonal space remapping following tool-use in humans

Cited by 13 publications

References 79 publications

Tool-use Extends Peripersonal Space Boundaries in Schizophrenic Patients

Tool-use Extends Peripersonal Space Boundaries in Schizophrenic Patients

The Remapping of Peripersonal Space in a Real but Not in a Virtual Environment

Multisensory-driven facilitation within the peripersonal space is modulated by the expectations about stimulus location on the body

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