The brain represents the space immediately surrounding the body differently to more distant parts of space. Direct evidence for this 'peripersonal space' representation comes from neurophysiological studies in monkeys, which show distance-dependent responses to visual stimuli in neurons with spatially coincident tactile responses. Most evidence for peripersonal space in humans is indirect: spatial- and distance-dependent modulations of reaction times and error rates in behavioural tasks. In one task often used to assess peripersonal space, sounds near the body have been argued to speed reactions to tactile stimuli. We conducted four experiments attempting to measure this distance-dependent audiotactile interaction. We found no distance-dependent enhancement of tactile processing in error rates or task performance, but found some evidence for a general speeding of reaction times by 9.5 ms when sounds were presented near the hand. A systematic review revealed an overestimation of reported effect sizes, lack of control conditions, a wide variety of methods, post hoc removal of data, and flexible methods of data analysis. After correcting for the speed of sound, removing biased or inconclusive studies, correcting for temporal expectancy, and using the trim-and-fill method to correct for publication bias, meta-analysis revealed an overall benefit of 15.2 ms when tactile stimuli are accompanied by near sounds compared to sounds further away. While this effect may be due to peripersonal space, response probability and the number of trials per condition explained significant proportions of variance in this near versus far benefit. These confounds need to be addressed, and alternative explanations ruled out by future, ideally pre-registered, studies.

中文翻译：

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手附近的声音是否有助于触觉反应时间？四个实验和一项荟萃分析提供了混合的支持，并表明效果较小。

大脑代表着紧紧围绕着身体的空间，而不是更遥远的空间。这种“个人空间”表示的直接证据来自猴子的神经生理学研究，这些研究表明，在距离上具有一致的触觉反应的神经元中，对视觉刺激的距离依赖性反应。人类周围空间的大多数证据是间接的：行为任务中反应时间和错误率的空间和距离相关的调制。在一项通常用于评估人际空间的任务中，有人认为靠近身体的声音可加快对触觉刺激的反应。我们进行了四个实验，试图测量这种与距离有关的听觉相互作用。我们发现触觉处理的错误率或任务性能没有依赖于距离的增强，但是发现了一些证据，表明在手附近发出声音时，反应时间通常可以缩短9.5毫秒。一项系统的审查显示，对报道的效应大小，对控制条件的缺乏，缺乏多种方法，事后删除数据以及灵活的数据分析方法都高估了。校正声音速度，删除有偏见或无结论的研究，校正时间预期并使用修剪和填充方法校正出版偏倚后，荟萃分析显示，当触觉刺激伴随有总时长为15.2毫秒相较于远处的声音 尽管这种影响可能是由于人际空间所致，但响应概率和每种情况的试验次数说明了这种远近收益与远远收益的显着比例差异。