Brain, Vol 121, Issue 12 2317-2326, Copyright © 1998 by Oxford University Press
E Ladavas, G Zeloni and A Farne
A convergent series of studies in monkeys and man suggests that the
computation of visual space is performed in several brain regions for
different behavioural purposes. Among these multiple spatial areas, the
ventral intraparietal cortex, the putamen and the ventral aspect of the
premotor cortex (area 6) contain a system for representing visual space
near the face (peripersonal space). In these cerebral areas some neurons
are bimodal: they have tactile receptive fields on the face, and they can
also be driven by visual stimuli located near the tactile field. The
spatial correspondence between the visual and tactile receptive fields
provides a map of near visual space coded in body-part- centred
co-ordinates. In the present study we demonstrate for the first time the
existence of a visual peripersonal space centred on the face in humans. In
patients with right hemispheric lesions, visual stimuli delivered in the
space near the ipsilesional side of the face extinguished tactile stimuli
on the contralesional side (cross-modal visuotactile extinction) to the
same extent as did an ipsilesional tactile stimulation (unimodal tactile
extinction). Furthermore, a visual stimulus presented in the proximity of
the contralesional side of the face improved the detection of a left
tactile stimulus: i.e. under bilateral tactile presentation patients were
more accurate to report the presence of a left tactile stimulus when a
simultaneous visual stimulus was presented near the left side of the face.
However, when visual stimuli were delivered far from the face, visuotactile
extinction and visuotactile facilitation effects were dramatically reduced.
These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of a representation of
visual peripersonal space coded in bodypart-centred co-ordinates, and they
provide a striking demonstration of the modularity of human visual space.
ARTICLES
Visual peripersonal space centred on the face in humans
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy. ladavas@psibo.unibo.it
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