Gravitational cues modulate the shape of defensive peripersonal space.
The potential damage caused by an environmental threat increases with proximity to the body, so animals perform more effective and stronger defensive responses when threatening stimuli occur nearby the body, in a region termed the defensive peripersonal space (DPPS) [1,2]. We recently characterized the fine-grained geometry of the face's DPPS by recording the enhancement of the blink reflex elicited by electrical stimulation of the median nerve (hand-blink reflex, HBR), when the hand is closer to the face [3]. The resulting DPPS has the shape of a bubble, elongated asymmetrically along the rostro-caudal axis, extending further above eye-level [4]. We hypothesized that this vertical asymmetry is determined by gravitational cues: the probability that a threat will hit the body is higher when it comes from above. By systematically altering body posture, we show that the extent of DPPS asymmetry is defined in an earth-centred coordinate frame. This observation suggests the brain takes gravitational cues to automatically update threat value in an adaptive mechanism that accounts for the simple fact that objects fall down.
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK; Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and EXperimental biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Rory John
RJ
Bufacchi
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK; Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and EXperimental biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. Electronic address: giandomenico.iannetti@gmail.com.
Gian Domenico
GD
Iannetti
D000328:Adult; D001767:Blinking; D003463:Cues; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D006112:Gravitation; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D010550:Personal Space; D011187:Posture; D013028:Space Perception; D055815:Young Adult