Approaching threatening stimuli cause an expansion of defensive peripersonal space

When sudden environmental stimuli signaling threat occur in the portion of space surrounding the body (defensive peripersonal space), defensive responses are enhanced. Recently Bisio et al. (Bisio A, Garbarini F, Biggio M, Fossataro C, Ruggeri P, Bove M. J Neurosci 37: 2415-2424, 2017) showed that a marker of defensive peripersonal space, the defensive hand-blink reflex, is modulated by the motion of the eliciting threatening stimulus. These results can be parsimoniously explained by the continuous monitoring of environmental threats, resulting in an expansion of defensive peripersonal space when threatening stimuli approach.