1) Interoception, the sense of the internal state of one's body, affects perceptions of personal and interpersonal space. Higher interoceptive accuracy predicts a narrower boundary of personal space. 2) Proximity to others impacts autonomic reactions like arousal, with increased reactions closer to one's body. Higher interceptive awareness mediates these interactions between internal state and perceptions of proximity. 3) Synchronous cardio-visual stimulation can increase identification with another person's face, showing the role of interoception in perceptions of self and other. Interoceptive accuracy also predicts changes in body ownership.

1. Interoception is now defined as
the sense of the internal state of
the body.
Peripersonal space is the ability
to predict the interaction with the
body (form the outside).
Interpersonal space is a
distance of comfortable social
interactions.
Autonomic, automatic, unintentional reactions can be monitored, perceived
and used to modify intentional behaviors and exteroception.

2. James-Lange theory (1885) of emotion: bodily sensations provide the critical
basis for emotional experience.
The somatic marker hypothesis (1991) by Antonio Damasio: decisions and
the ensuing behaviors are guided by physiological patterns of interoceptive
and emotional information
Interoception gains popularity

3. Embodied predictive interoception coding (EPIC)
Active inference is making predictions about situations based on previous
experiences.
These predictions, when coupled with incoming sensory signals, allow the brain to
compute a prediction error:
the discrepancies within the body, which the brain attempts to minimize by
1) modifying the predictions through brain-related pathways
2) altering the body position/location in order to better align incoming sensory signals
with the prediction
3) altering the brain's method of receiving incoming stimuli
Seth, 2012

4. Barret & Simmons, 2015
Agranular visceromotor cortices contribute to interoception via interoceptive
predictions.

5. Peripersonal space
network: premotor and
parietal cortices

6. Proximity
Autonomic
activity

7. Аnticipatory response to
an incoming threat is
reduced if the stimulus
targets a spatial position
far away from the body,
as compared to a near
or bodily location.
responses to far
stimuli change if the
reachablimity are
expanded by active
tool use.
More arousal at the
distance!
Rossetti 2015
Electrodermal activity, an index of arousal

8. Cartaud, 2018
human-like point-light displays
Interpersonal space and autonomic response

9. Cartaud, 2018
(Angry and neutral)
Increase of electrodermal fluctuations predicts the
more conservative Comfort distance (stay away!)

10. Pupil dilation in response to the pinch grip classifier vs
the big object classifier, indicating attention simulation in PPS.
Lobben 2017

11. Better discrimination of proximal negative and positive
emotional expressions at the level of the pupillary reaction
Bogdanova

12. Ferri, 2013
Whether interoceptive sensitivity to one’s heartbeat predicts participants’ autonomic
response at different social distances?

13. Only good heartbeat perceivers showed higher autonomic response in the
social setting
Ferri, 2013
PPS
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia – “parasymathetis tone, relaxation”

14. change in RSA response from the Touch to the IS (Intermediate-Peripersonal Space)
condition in the social context.
Ferri, 2013

15. Proximity
Autonomic
activity

16. Bisection of the radial line
Increased electrodermal activity predicts
line bisection corresponding to more
proximal distance
Szpak, 2015

17. Electrodermal reaction to
presence of the other
True midpoint
Electrodermal reaction to
presence of the other
(discomfort,
arousal)
(comfort,
relaxation)

18. Proximity
Interceptive
accuracy

19. Integration of body-related signals within the peripersonal space
(PPS) contributes to bodily self-awareness.
Ardizzi, 2018
interoceptive influences on PPS extension
heartbeat counting task and a time
estimation task, to specifically
assess their interoceptive accuracy
audio-tactile interaction task, to
measure their PPS boundary
higher interoceptive accuracy specifically predicts narrower PPS boundary
individual traits of
private self-consciousness

20. Ardizzi, 2018
The Private Self-Consciousness subscale (10
items) assesses the extent to which individuals focus
on internal thought, sensations and feelings.

21. Body
ownership
Interceptive
accuracy

22. interoceptive accuracy
Filippetti, 2017
Rubber hand
synchronous
Rubber hand
asynchronous
a change in body-ownership
significantly improved
performance of participants with
lower interoceptive accuracy.

23. Body
ownership
Interceptive
accuracy

24. degree of morphing for
which participants judged
to equally represent
“other” and “self” traits,
hereafter referred to as
Point of Subjective
Equality (PSE).
Cardio-visual procedure
Synchronous (vs. asynchronous)
cardio-visual stimulation can lead to
increased self-identification with
the other’s face.
Sel, 2017

25. Conclusions
1. Proximity affect autonomic reactions (arousal)
2. The internal state modifies the sense of proximity
3. The interceptive awareness is an important
mediator of these interactions.