Pain and the peripersonal space
Adequately responding to a painful stimulus requires knowing where pain is localized on the body, but also where the cause of pain is localized in the external world. This involves for the brain to coordinate the somatotopic representation of the body and the representations of the space around the body. According to a recent theory, the spatial localization of pain depends on a cortical mapping system that integrates nociceptive (localization of the salient and threatening stimulus on the body), proprioceptive (localization of the limbs in external space) and visual information (localization of the cause/source of pain in the external world) into a multimodal and peripersonal representation of the body and the space nearby.
Researchers involved