Object coding in peripersonal space depends on object ownership

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that objects located in the peripersonal space (PPS) receive enhanced attention, as compared with extrapersonal space (EPS), However, most objects in the environment belong to someone in particular and how object ownership influences object coding in relation to PPS representation is still unclear. In the present study, after having chosen their own mug, participants performed a reachability judgement task of self-owned and other-owned mugs presented at different distances while facing a virtual character. This task was followed, on each trial, by a localisation task in which participants had to indicate where the mug, removed from view, was previously located. The two tasks were separated by a 900-ms visual mask during which the virtual character was unnoticeably shifted by 3° to evaluate the spatial frame-of-reference used. The results showed that self-owned mugs were processed faster than other-owned mugs, but only when located in the PPS. Furthermore, reachability judgements were biased for self-owned mugs, leading to an extension of the PPS representation, especially for participants with a high score on the fantasy scale of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Finally, the virtual character shift altered the localisation performance but only for the distant mugs, suggesting a progressive shift from egocentric to allocentric frame-of-reference when moving from the PPS to EPS, irrespective of object ownership. Overall, our data reveal that the representations of ownership and PPS interact to facilitate the processing of manipulable objects, to an extent that depends on individual sensitivity to the social presence of others.