Functional networks for peripersonal space coding and prediction of impact to the body

Peripersonal space is defined as the space surrounding the body, which we can interact with and act upon. It has been hypothesized to play a key functional role in body representation and in the definition of a safety boundary around the body. More recently, growing evidence suggests that this space is dynamically resized both as a function of internal states such as anxiety or as a function of external contingencies such as social interactions or goal-directed actions. In the following review, we will review seminal and recent work in both human and non-human primates, describing the functional cortical networks involved in the coding of body margin (the skin), peripersonal space (around the body) and far space (away from the body), and we will describe how these networks are recruited during the prediction of an impact to the body (near the skin). We will propose a functional perspective to recent evidence for multiple behaviourally dissociable peripersonal spaces, and discuss the putative neuronal and network mechanisms that could account for the observed dynamic resizing of peripersonal space.