Peripersonal space (PPS), which refers to space immediately around an individual’s body, plays an important role in interacting with external objects and avoiding unsafe situations. Studies suggest that, during self-motion perception, PPS expands in the direction in which a person perceives himself/herself to be traveling. In the present study, we built on this by investigating, using visually induced self-motion (vection), how visual self-motion information modulates PPS representation. In our experiment, large-field visual motion was presented through a head-mounted display that caused observers to perceive themselves as moving forward in a tunnel (LF condition). To clarify the effects of self-motion information, we compared the findings for this condition with those of another condition, in which small-field visual motion was presented; here, only the central visual field represented motion, which caused the observers to perceive relatively little self-motion (SF condition). Two speeds were tested for both conditions: 1.5 m/s and 6.0 m/s. For measurement, we used a visuotactile-interaction task in which participants, while observing a visual probe object approaching from various distances, were instructed to press a response key as soon as they detected tactile stimuli delivered to their chest. We measured the distance at which the visual approaching probe object facilitated tactile detection (visual-facilitation effect); this was determined through comparisons with trials when no probe was presented. The results showed that the visual facilitation effects were observed for larger distance in the LF than SF conditions, irrespective of tested speeds. These results suggest that visual self-motion information can modulate PPS representation. This finding fits well with the view that PPS representation contributes to protecting the body from potential threats in the environment.

人际空间（PPS）是指紧紧围绕着人体的空间，在与外部物体进行交互并避免发生不安全情况时起着重要作用。研究表明，在自我运动感知过程中，PPS会朝着人们感知自己正在旅行的方向扩展。在本研究中，我们通过使用视觉诱发的自我运动（运动）研究视觉自我信息如何调节PPS表示，以此为基础。在我们的实验中，通过头戴式显示器呈现了大视野视觉运动，使观察者感觉到自己在隧道中前进（低频条件）。为了阐明自我运动信息的影响，我们将这种情况下的发现与另一种情况下的发现进行了比较，在这种情况下提出了小视野视觉运动。这里，只有中央视野代表运动，这导致观察者感知到相对较少的自运动（SF条件）。在两种条件下测试了两种速度：1.5 m / s和6.0 m / s。为了进行测量，我们使用了一个视觉触觉互动任务，其中参与者在观察到从各个距离接近的视觉探针时，被指示在他们检测到传递到他们胸部的触觉刺激后立即按下响应键。我们测量了视觉接近探针物体促进触觉检测的距离（视觉促进效应）；这是通过与没有提供探针的试验进行比较来确定的。结果表明，与SF条件相比，在LF中观察到的视觉促进效果更大，而与测试速度无关。这些结果表明视觉自我运动信息可以调节PPS表示。这一发现与以下观点非常吻合：PPS表示有助于保护人体免受环境中潜在威胁的影响。