Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume 22, Issue 12, December 2018, Pages 1076-1090
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Opinion
An Action Field Theory of Peripersonal Space

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.09.004Get rights and content
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Highlights

Many behavioural and neurophysiological responses depend on the proximity of environmental stimuli to the body or to specific body parts.

This has led to the intuitive, but ill-defined, concept of PPS as a single, distance-based, in-or-out zone. However, this intuitive framework is contradicted by empirical data.

PPS is instead better conceptualised as a set of several different graded fields, affected by many factors other than stimulus proximity.

PPS fields emphasize different behavioural functions and, thus, are better understood as mappings onto behaviour, rather than as representations of stimulus configuration.

This reconceptualisation incorporates PPS into mainstream theories of action selection and behaviour.

Predominant conceptual frameworks often describe peripersonal space (PPS) as a single, distance-based, in-or-out zone within which stimuli elicit enhanced neural and behavioural responses. Here we argue that this intuitive framework is contradicted by neurophysiological and behavioural data. First, PPS-related measures are not binary, but graded with proximity. Second, they are strongly influenced by factors other than proximity, such as walking, tool use, stimulus valence, and social cues. Third, many different PPS-related responses exist, and each can be used to describe a different space. Here, we reconceptualise PPS as a set of graded fields describing behavioural relevance of actions aiming to create or avoid contact between objects and the body. This reconceptualisation incorporates PPS into mainstream theories of action selection and behaviour.

Keywords

perception and action
action selection
egocentric coding
motor system
defence
goal-oriented actions

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