title: Motor properties of peripersonal space in humans.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A stimulus approaching the body requires fast processing and appropriate motor reactions. In monkeys, fronto-parietal networks are involved both in integrating multisensory information within a limited space surrounding the body (i.e. peripersonal space, PPS) and in action planning and execution, suggesting an overlap between sensory representations of space and motor representations of action. In the present study we investigate whether these overlapping representations also exist in the human brain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We recorded from hand muscles motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) induced by single-pulse of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) after presenting an auditory stimulus either near the hand or in far space. MEPs recorded 50 ms after the near-sound onset were enhanced compared to MEPs evoked after far sounds. This near-far modulation faded at longer inter-stimulus intervals, and reversed completely for MEPs recorded 300 ms after the sound onset. At that time point, higher motor excitability was associated with far sounds. Such auditory modulation of hand motor representation was specific to a hand-centred, and not a body-centred reference frame.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pattern of corticospinal modulation highlights the relation between space and time in the pps representation: an early facilitation for near stimuli may reflect immediate motor preparation, whereas, at later time intervals, motor preparation relates to distant stimuli potentially approaching the body.
authors: Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, Italy. andrea.serino@unibo.it
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Serino
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Annella
authors: Alessio
authors: A
authors: Avenanti
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D010550:Personal Space; D013028:Space Perception; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation