Représentation de l’espace péripersonnel chez les enfants de 7 à 14 ans

Abstract

Peripersonal space is defined as the space containing the objects that can be manually reached without the necessity for prior displacement of the whole body. The perception of its boundary requires combining distance-related visual information with representations of action possibilities with the body. In children, it has been shown that the capabilities of multisensory and sensorimotor integration during development are not optimal before the age of 8 to 10years. In this context, our study aims at measuring in children 7 to 14years, the perception of peripersonal space in different conditions of presentation of visual stimuli. The results show that children ages 7 and 8 overestimate their peripersonal space more than older children and appear more affected by the conditions of presentation of the visual stimuli. A major change is observed between 8 and 10years, suggesting that at this age, the development of new perceptual competences involving motor representations.