Multisensory contributions to affective touch

Background: Humans are neurobiologically wired for touch receptivity. Social touch is a common and mutual way of expressing affection, care, and intimacy. From an evolutionary perspective, affiliative and affectionate touch are considered necessary for social and cognitive development throughout life-stages and across species. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health threat has mandated social distancing as a measure to contain the global outbreak. Travel restrictions, lockdown, and quarantine have led to separation and segregation, giving rise to social touch deprivation that might have adverse biopsychosocial consequences. Methods: Affective touch has rarely been discussed within the purview of social psychiatry. We attempted to review the neurobiological, social, and behavioural correlates of social and sexual touch, as well as the neurophysiological models involved. Results: The unmyelinated peripheral C-fibre afferents projecting to insular cortex and somatosensory areas form the prime pathway for affective touch. ‘Top-down’ modulation via the periaqueductal grey area, rostroventral medulla and sub-cortical structures, and ‘Bottom-up’ approach via the dorsal horn of the spine form the two theoretical models of ‘social touch’ system. The mu - opioid receptor (MOR) implicated in the Brain Opioid Theory of Social Attachment (BOTSA) and social neuropeptides like oxytocin and vasopressin are the primary neurochemical substrates involved. Sexual intimacy involves other neurotransmitters, with increased oxytocin activity in the limbic structures, Nucleus Accumbens, Anterior Cingulate, and Prefrontal Cortex. The discrimination and amalgamation of touch senses, their affiliative value and emotional valence in humans are based on a complex interplay between psychobiological, environmental, and personal factors. Conclusion: The neurobehavioral and emotional effects of ‘touch hunger’ and strategies to mitigate it during COVID-19 are discussed in the context of psychoneuroimmunity and stress.

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Neural basis of affective touch and pain: A novel model suggests possible targets for pain amelioration

Journal of Neuropsychology ◽

10.1111/jnp.12250 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Larissa L. Meijer ◽

Carla Ruis ◽

Maarten J. Smagt ◽

Erik J. A. Scherder ◽

H. Chris Dijkerman

Keyword(s):

Neural Basis ◽

Affective Touch ◽

Novel Model

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Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167220988373 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 014616722098837

Author(s):

Agnieszka Sorokowska ◽

Supreet Saluja ◽

Piotr Sorokowski ◽

Tomasz Frąckowiak ◽

Maciej Karwowski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Close Relationships ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Variation ◽

Interpersonal Distance ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

Affective Touch ◽

Individual Level ◽

Interpersonal Touch ◽

Regional Temperature

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.

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Jesus as News: Crises of Health and Overpopulation in Galilee

Journal for the Study of the New Testament ◽

10.1177/0142064x211025481 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0142064X2110254

Author(s):

Joan E. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Holy Spirit ◽

Rural Poverty ◽

Great Density ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Affective Touch ◽

System Disease ◽

Physical Touch ◽

As Stress ◽

Positive Effect

What made Jesus ‘news’? The key reason given in Mark and Matthew is that Jesus was an effective healer. In Q, likewise, Jesus fulfils John’s prediction of a Coming One who will baptize in Holy Spirit and fire by means of his healing mission. Luke complicates this slightly by emphasizing Jesus’ teaching on social justice, and John conceptualizes the healings as ‘signs’, but both also indicate that Jesus was news because he healed people. Thus, Galilee was in the grip of a chronic health crisis which people – both rich and poor – experienced as stress, and Jesus was news because he provided a solution. While being an exorcistic healer was not unusual, Jesus’ healing apparently was, both in its effectiveness and in its approach, involving physical touch. We now know that affective touch has a positive effect on the immune system. Disease crises in Galilee can be linked to the great density of its population, associated with widespread rural poverty and environmental degradation. Previous assessments of population in Galilee have hitherto been much too small.

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Affective Proprioception

Janus Head ◽

10.5840/jh2006922 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 299-317

Author(s):

Jonathan Cole ◽

Barbara Montero ◽

Keyword(s):

Neurological Impairment ◽

Sense Of Agency ◽

Human Society ◽

Affective Touch ◽

Emotional Level

Proprioception has been considered, within neuroscience, in the context of the control of movement. Here we discuss a possible second role for this 'sixth sense', pleasure in and of movement,homologous with the recently described affective touch. We speculate on its evolution and place in human society and suggest that pleasure in movement may depend not on feedback but also on harmony between intention and action. Examples come from expert movers, dancers and sportsmen, and from those without proprioception due to neurological impairment. Finally we suggest that affective proprioception may help bind our sense of agency with our embodied selves at an emotional level.

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Children’s vicarious ratings of social touch are tuned to the velocity but not the location of a caress.

10.31234/osf.io/396hb ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Connor Haggarty ◽

Paula Trotter ◽

Francis McGlone ◽

Susannah Walker

Keyword(s):

Upper Body ◽

Vicarious Experience ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Anatomical Distribution ◽

Optimal Velocity ◽

Affective Touch ◽

Video Clips ◽

Cognitive Evaluation ◽

Force Velocity ◽

Prior Experiences

Affective sharing is a bottom-up process involving automatic processing of sensory inputs that facilitate vicarious experience of another’s emotional state. It is grounded directly in the prior experiences of the perceiver. In adults, vicarious ratings of affective touch match the known velocity tuning and hypothesized anatomical distribution of C-tactile afferents (CT), a subclass of C-fiber which respond preferentially to low force/velocity stroking touch, typically perceived as pleasant. Given the centrality of touch to early nurturing interactions, here we examined whether primary school aged children’s vicarious ratings of affective touch show the same anatomical and velocity specific patterns reported in adults. Forty-four children aged between 8 and 11 (mean age 9, 24 male) rated a sequence of video clips depicting one individual being touched by another on 5 different upper-body sites (palm, dorsal forearm, ventral forearm, upper-arm and back) at 3 different velocities (static, CT optimal, slow stroking and non-CT optimal, fast stroking). Immediately after viewing each clip, participants were asked to rate how pleasant they perceived the touch to be. While children rated the CT optimal velocity significantly higher than static or non-CT optimal touch, unlike adults their ratings did not vary across skin sites. This difference may reflect the fact children’s ratings are grounded in bottom-up affective resonance while adults also draw on top-down cognitive evaluation of the broader social context when rating the stimuli.

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The Making of Meaning through Dyadic Haptic Affective Touch

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction ◽

10.1145/3490494 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 1-42

Author(s):

Sara Price ◽

Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze ◽

Carey Jewitt ◽

Nikoleta Yiannoutsou ◽

Katerina Fotopoulou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Qualitative Studies ◽

Research Tool ◽

Human Relations ◽

Affective Communication ◽

Affective Touch ◽

Design Considerations ◽

Common Understanding

Despite the importance of touch in human–human relations, research in affective tactile practices is in its infancy, lacking in-depth understanding needed to inform the design of remote digital touch communication. This article reports two qualitative studies that explore tactile affective communication in specific social contexts, and the bi-directional creation, sending and interpretation of digital touch messages using a purpose-built research tool, the Tactile Emoticon. The system comprises a pair of remotely connected mitts, which enable users in different locations to communicate through tactile messages, by orchestrating duration and level of three haptic sensations: vibration, pressure and temperature. Qualitative analysis shows the nuanced ways in which 68 participants configured these elements to make meaning from touch messages they sent and received. It points to the affect and emotion of touch, its sensoriality and ambiguity, the significance of context, social norms and expectations of touch participants. Findings suggest key design considerations for digital touch communication, where the emphasis shifts from generating ‘recognizable touches’ to tools that allow people to shape their touches and establish common understanding about their meaning.

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