Invisible body illusion modulates interpersonal space

Abstract

Interpersonal space (e.g., IPS) refers to the physical distance individuals maintain from others during social interactions, and into which intrusion by others can cause discomfort. Here, we asked whether the size of IPS is affected by manipulation of one’s own body representation. To address this issue, in Experiment 1, IPS was measured through a comfort-distance task, before and after eliciting the illusion of owning an invisible body. To rule out a general, nonspecific change in space perception consequent the illusion, we also assessed peripersonal space, e.g., PPS, the area around the body used to act on nearby objects, through a reaching-distance task. Results showed that the experience of invisibility induces a selective contraction of IPS, without affecting the perceived reaching space around the body. In Experiment 2, a tool-use manipulation produced the opposite dissociation, modifying the boundaries of PPS, but leaving IPS distance unaltered. Collectively, these findings support a close relationship between IPS and the conscious representation of the body external appearance, i.e. the body image, and suggest the existence of two functionally separate representations of the space immediately surrounding the body in humans, which may form the basis of distinct processes engaged for different behavioural contexts.

Peri-personal space as a prior in coupling visual and proprioceptive signals

“…To further confirm this conclusion in the future it will be important to replicate the findings of the current report while equally measuring PPS via other “traditional” approaches. That is, as argued by several different other authors 44 , 45 , 51 , 79 , it is possible that different PPS representations exist, and the interrelation between multisensory PPS defined via reaction times 25 , 26 , PPS as defined by defensive reflexes 57 , reaching space 41 , 80 , and now the method developed here, is unclear. It is unequivocal that here we demonstrate a multisensory coupling that is space-dependent, yet how this spatial extent relates to, say, the spatial region within which tactile reaction times are facilitated 27 (a more classic definition of PPS) remains an open question.…”

“…Given these results, in a first aim here we sought to further probe the putative relation between bodily self-consciousness and PPS by examining whether the latter representation was “preserved yet modified” when the body was rendered invisible. This specific hypothesis is supported by the above-mentioned findings that embodiment, putatively reliant on PPS encoding 20 , 33 – 35 , over empty spaces is possible 42 , 43 , yet interpersonal space – a concept closely related but not identical to PPS (see see Clery & Ben Hamed 44 and Hunley & Lourenco 45 ) – is contracted 41 when the body is rendered invisible.…”

“…Arguably, however, more direct examinations of the relationship between the visually represented body and the multisensory PPS are largely lacking due to i) the fact that PPS has traditionally been studied in the real world and via reaction time paradigms that necessitate the presence of the body, and ii) the difficulty – or impossibility, without novel virtual reality (VR) technology - to study PPS while not displaying a body yet concurrently leaving the rest of the visual scene unchanged. In rare exceptions and making use of VR setups, D’Angelo and colleagues 41 have recently observed that body invisibility induces a contraction of interpersonal space, yet not of the judgement of their reaching limit, while Guterstam and colleagues have suggested that whole-body 42 or body-part 43 ownership over an empty space is possible. Given these results, in a first aim here we sought to further probe the putative relation between bodily self-consciousness and PPS by examining whether the latter representation was “preserved yet modified” when the body was rendered invisible.…”

From multisensory integration in peripersonal space to bodily self‐consciousness: from statistical regularities to statistical inference

“…More directly related to bodily self‐consciousness, a number of groups have shown that tactile stimulation of the body is not necessary to induce bodily illusions, but solely implying tactile sensation emanating from the PPS may elicit changes in bodily representation . Furthermore, these tactile predictions may have a phenomenological correlate .…”

Personal Space of Autonomous Car’s Passengers Sitting in the Driver’s Seat

“…The Dosey-Meilsels Protection Theory [4], assigns personal space to protection objectives from a physical attack towards one's body or social attack towards one's social image, whereas [5] attributes it to navigation's planning objectives. Hence, [6,7,8] demonstrated that there are two different types of personal spaces. They are linked to different high-order representations of the body.…”