An intracranial EEG study: Audio-tactile and peripersonal space
© F. Bernasconi - 2018 EPFL
Fosco Bernasconi and his team composed by researchers from the EPFL, HUG and UNIL were able to describe the temporal dynamics of trunk peripersonal space (PPS), with the use of intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG). This account for one of the few published studies regarding trunk-related PPS, as most studies have focused on PPS representations for the hand.
Interactions with the environment happen within one’s peripersonal space (PPS)—the space surrounding the body. Our results from intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) in humans show that audio-tactile multisensory integration and PPS effects have similar spatiotemporal characteristics, with an early response (~50 ms) in the insular cortex, and later responses (~200 ms) in precentral and postcentral gyri. Collectively, these results represent the first iEEG delineation of PPS processing in humans and show that PPS and multisensory integration happen at similar neural sites and time periods, suggesting that PPS representation is based on a spatial modulation of multisensory integration.
