Dataset Information

Mind the Depth: Visual Perception of Shapes Is Better in Peripersonal Space.

ABSTRACT: Closer objects are invariably perceived as bigger than farther ones and are therefore easier to detect and discriminate. This is so deeply grounded in our daily experience that no question has been raised as to whether the advantage for near objects depends on other features (e.g., depth itself). In a series of five experiments ( N = 114), we exploited immersive virtual environments and visual illusions (i.e., Ponzo) to probe humans' perceptual abilities in depth and, specifically, in the space closely surrounding our body, termed peripersonal space. We reversed the natural distance scaling of size in favor of the farther object, which thus appeared bigger, to demonstrate a persistent shape-discrimination advantage for close objects. Psychophysical modeling further suggested a sigmoidal trend for this benefit, mirroring that found for multisensory estimates of peripersonal space. We argue that depth is a fundamental, yet overlooked, dimension of human perception and that future studies in vision and perception should be depth aware.

SUBMITTER: Blini E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6238160 | biostudies-other | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Publications

Mind the Depth: Visual Perception of Shapes Is Better in Peripersonal Space.

Blini Elvio E Desoche Clément C Salemme Romeo R Kabil Alexandre A Hadj-Bouziane Fadila F Farnè Alessandro A

Psychological science 20181004 11

Closer objects are invariably perceived as bigger than farther ones and are therefore easier to detect and discriminate. This is so deeply grounded in our daily experience that no question has been raised as to whether the advantage for near objects depends on other features (e.g., depth itself). In a series of five experiments ( N = 114), we exploited immersive virtual environments and visual illusions (i.e., Ponzo) to probe humans' perceptual abilities in depth and, specifically, in the space ...[more]

PMID: 30285541

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Project description:Coordinating spatial perception between body space and its external surrounding space is essential to adapt behaviors to objects, especially when they are noxious. Such coherent multisensory representation of the body extended into external space is conceptualized by the notion of peripersonal reference frame, mapping the portion of space in which somatic and extra-somatic inputs interact closely. Studies on crossmodal interactions between nociception and vision have been scarce. Here we investigated how the perception of visual stimuli, especially those surrounding the body, can be impacted by a nociceptive and potentially harmful stimulus inflicted on a particular body part. In two temporal order judgment tasks, participants judged which of two lateralized visual stimuli, presented either near or far from the body, had been presented first. Visual stimuli were preceded by nociceptive stimuli, either applied unilaterally (on one single hand) or bilaterally (on both hands simultaneously). In Experiment 1 participants' hands were always placed next to the visual stimuli presented near the trunk, while in Experiment 2 they could also be placed next to the visual stimuli presented far from the trunk. In Experiment 1, the presence of unilateral nociceptive stimuli prioritized the perception of visual stimuli presented in the same side of space as the stimulated hand, with a significantly larger effect when visual stimuli were presented near the body than when presented farther away. Experiment 2 showed that these visuospatial biases were related to the spatial congruency between the hand on which nociceptive stimuli were applied and the visual stimuli, independently of the relative distance of both the stimulated hand and the visual stimuli from the trunk. Indeed, nociceptive stimuli mostly impacted the perception of the closest visual stimuli. It is hypothesized that these crossmodal interactions may rely on representations of the space directly surrounding specific body parts.

Dataset Information

Mind the Depth: Visual Perception of Shapes Is Better in Peripersonal Space.

Publications

Mind the Depth: Visual Perception of Shapes Is Better in Peripersonal Space.

Similar Datasets

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