Peripersonal space: a neural system mapping self–environment interaction ‘here and now’

Abstract

The space surrounding the body where physical interactions with external stimuli occur is referred to as peripersonal space (PPS). Traditionally conceived as a spatial construct, PPS is better understood as a neural representation that integrates bodily inputs with external cues to predict body-object interactions. After summarizing its multisensory, motor, and plastic properties, this review draws on computational models to examine how PPS captures statistical regularities of body-object interactions. This predictive function may position PPS as an interface between self and environment, contributing to minimal self-consciousness and its alterations across states of consciousness and neuropsychiatric conditions. Recent findings extend this framework to the inner body, suggesting that interoceptive signals shape PPS and that PPS-related processing may influence immune responses.