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Social coding of the multisensory space around us
Lise Hobeika1, Marine Taffou1,2, Isabelle Viaud-Delmon1
1CNRS, Ircam, Sorbonne Université, Ministère de la Culture, Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du son, STMS, F-75004 Paris, France.
Royal Society Open Science
|October 11, 2019
Summary
Social context shapes our perception of space. Collaboration extends peripersonal space (PPS), suggesting altered spatial processing during group actions for better interaction with the environment.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Peripersonal space (PPS) is the area around our body, crucial for interaction.
- PPS is adaptable to emotional states and actions, but its modulation by social context is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how social interactions modulate peripersonal space (PPS).
- To examine if collaborative or competitive dyads alter PPS boundaries compared to solitary settings.
Main Methods:
- An audiotactile interaction task was employed to assess PPS.
- Participants detected tactile stimuli amidst task-irrelevant looming sounds in collaborative, competitive, and solitary conditions.
Main Results:
- Peripersonal space (PPS) boundaries extended significantly only during collaborative interactions.
- This extension occurred in the right hemispace and was independent of the partner's location.
- No significant modulation of PPS was observed in competitive or solitary conditions.
Conclusions:
- Collaborative social contexts uniquely modulate spatial representations, specifically extending peripersonal space (PPS).
- This suggests that collective actions may involve supra-individual spatial representations to adapt motor control for group interactions.
- Low-level sensory integration mechanisms may be sensitive to social needs, influencing how we interact with the external world.
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