Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo.
Virtual Reality Educational Research Center, The University of Tokyo.
Psychol Sci. 2019 Oct;30(10):1522-1532. doi: 10.1177/0956797619869337. Epub 2019 Sep 23.
The limited space immediately surrounding our body, known as peripersonal space (PPS), has been investigated by focusing on changes in the multisensory processing of audio-tactile stimuli occurring within or outside the PPS. Some studies have reported that the PPS representation is extended by body actions such as walking. However, it is unclear whether the PPS changes when a walking-like sensation is induced but the body neither moves nor is forced to move. Here, we show that a rhythmic pattern consisting of walking-sound vibrations applied to the soles of the feet, but not the forearms, boosted tactile processing when looming sounds were located near the body. The findings suggest that an extension of the PPS representation can be triggered by stimulating the soles in the absence of body action, which may automatically drive a motor program for walking, leading to a change in spatial cognition around the body.
我们身体周围的有限空间，称为peripersonal 空间（PPS），已经通过关注 PPS 内或外的听觉触觉刺激的多感觉处理的变化来进行研究。一些研究报告称，身体动作（如行走）会扩展 PPS 的表示。然而，当诱导出类似于行走的感觉但身体既不移动也不被迫移动时，PPS 是否会发生变化尚不清楚。在这里，我们表明，脚底施加的行走声音振动的节奏模式会增强当靠近身体的地方出现潜在声音时的触觉处理，但在前臂则不会。这些发现表明，即使没有身体动作，刺激脚底也可以触发 PPS 表示的扩展，这可能会自动驱动行走的运动程序，从而导致身体周围空间认知的变化。
