Article
Neurosciences
Paula D. Trotter, Sharon A. Smith, David J. Moore, Noreen O'Sullivan, Martyn M. McFarquhar, Francis P. McGlone, Susannah C. Walker
Summary: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of acutely lowering central serotonin levels on perceptions of affective touch. The results showed that after lowering serotonin levels, participants rated affective touch as more pleasant and had increased discrimination of specific velocities that target CT fibers. However, lowered serotonin levels had no effect on tactile or cold pain thresholds, but there was a trend for reduced tolerance to cold pain.
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Annett Schirmer, Clare Cham, Zihao Zhao, Oscar Lai, Clive Lo, Ilona Croy
Summary: These two studies found that men and women have similar sensory pleasantness in touch, but differ in their preceding affective experiences and how they value touch at a higher-order social level. Women are more likely to express touch comfort with less familiar or unknown individuals, have a greater preference for touch with other women, and feel more comfortable giving and receiving touch to the forearm.
PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Yun-Kai Li, Qing-Hao Meng, Ya-Xin Wang, Hui-Rang Hou
Summary: Human social interaction integrates various communication channels, such as speech, facial expressions, body gestures, and touch. Recognizing human emotions through these channels is crucial for natural human-robot interaction. However, there is limited research on touch-based multimodal emotion recognition (MER). This work introduces a dataset (FETE) that combines facial expression and touch gesture for emotion recognition. Additionally, a multi-eigenspace based multimodal fusion network (MMFN) is proposed for tactile-visual bimodal emotion recognition. The experiments on the FETE dataset show that MMFN achieves significant improvement in accuracy compared to single-modality approaches.
EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Annett Schirmer, Man Hey Chiu, Ilona Croy
Summary: The study reveals that different touch actions have unique somatosensory topographies, as well as distinct differences in emotional context, comfort, and frequency. Therefore, affectionate touch actions are not redundant, but highly differentiated in terms of somatosensory and socioaffective processes.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Merle T. Fairhurst, Francis McGlone, Ilona Croy
Summary: This article examines affective touch mediated through CT afferents, emphasizing how gentle stroking activates the CT system to communicate signals for social exchange. It highlights the complete communication chain, including signal, receiver, sender, and dynamic interactions between agents.
CURRENT OPINION IN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Mary H. Burleson, Karen S. Quigley
Summary: The article compares the role of interoceptive signals in emotional experiences according to the SAME and TCE theories, highlighting the potential impact of social interoceptive input on emotion-related effects and the utility of CT-optimal touch in understanding basic interoceptive mechanisms.
SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Leah J. Elias, Isabella K. Succi, Melanie D. Schaffler, William Foster, Mark A. Gradwell, Manon Bohic, Akira Fushiki, Aman Upadhyay, Lindsay L. Ejoh, Ryan Schwark, Rachel Frazer, Brittany Bistis, Jessica E. Burke, Victoria Saltz, Jared E. Boyce, Anissa Jhumka, Rui M. Costa, Victoria E. Abraira, Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
Summary: By studying mice, it is found that sensory neurons labeled by Mrgprb4 are able to detect mechanical stimulation and play a crucial role in sexual receptivity and dopamine release. Optogenetic stimulation of these neurons can induce a conditioned place preference and a copulatory posture even in social isolation. In the absence of Mrgprb4-lineage neurons, female mice no longer find male mounts rewarding and show aggression instead.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Jie Chen, Yulin Zhang, Guozhen Zhao
Summary: The study focuses on the acquisition and evaluation of the Qingdao Preschooler Facial Expression (QPFE) set, which features images of emotion expressions of 54 Chinese preschoolers. The set includes pictures of six basic emotions, five positive emotions, and a neutral expression, evaluated by 43 adult raters online. The data contributes to research on children's emotion expressions and positive emotions.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Benlong Liu, Lina Qiao, Kun Liu, Juan Liu, Tyler J. Piccinni-Ash, Zhou-Feng Chen
Summary: Pleasant touch provides emotional and psychological support, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study found that the lack of certain genes in mice leads to impairments in stress response and prosocial behaviors. Additionally, specific neurons were found to respond most strongly to gentle stroking and encode reward value.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Tara Kidd, Shaunna L. Devine, Susannah C. Walker
Summary: This article reviews the association between stress and health and proposes social touch, specifically affective touch, as a crucial factor in understanding how close relationships contribute to stress and health. It provides empirical evidence on the importance of affective touch in the development of stress systems and social relationships.
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Gianluca Cruciani, Pietro Zingaretti, Vittorio Lingiardi, Sergio De Filippis, Patrick Haggard, Grazia Fernanda Spitoni
Summary: This study found deficits in pain perception and tactile sensitivity in individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), but no differences in tactile acuity, cold pain thresholds, cold tolerance, or affective touch perception.
JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Isabella Pueschel, Joerg Reichert, Yvonne Friedrich, Joerg Bergander, Kerstin Weidner, Ilona Croy
Summary: Maternal stroking touch stimulates C-tactile afferents in preterm infants and leads to a decrease in heart rate. However, the CT system in preterm infants is not yet mature, and less mature preterm infants benefit less from stroking.
PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Laura K. Case, Jaquette Liljencrantz, Micaela V. McCall, Megan Bradson, Aaron Necaise, Justin Tubbs, Hakan Olausson, Binquan Wang, M. Catherine Bushnell
Summary: This paper examines the research on pleasant touch, focusing on the C-tactile pathway for gentle stroking and introducing deep pressure as another important form of social touch. Utilizing the oscillating compression sleeve (OCS) to administer deep pressure, the study demonstrates that this touch is perceived as pleasant and calming, and activates brain regions similar to C-tactile stroking. The findings suggest that deep pressure constitutes another social touch pathway of evolutionary importance signaling close proximity of conspecifics.
Article
Psychology, Social
Annett Schirmer, Clare Cham, Zihao Zhao, Ilona Croy
Summary: This study examined how touch role and culture influence affective touch experiences. Germans and Chinese participants were surveyed and provided descriptions of what prompts touch, indicated with whom touch feels comfortable, and highlighted areas of touch comfort on a body outline. The findings showed that touch is mainly prompted by affectionate feelings, is more comfortable with close individuals, and is most comfortable when directed at the upper arms, shoulders, and upper back. Touch role also had an impact, with touchees feeling less positive than touchers. Cultural differences were found in touch comfort, with Germans feeling more comfortable with intimate touch to the torso and upper back, and less comfortable with public touch to the hands. However, overall there was more overlap than divergence, ensuring mutual comfort during physical connections.
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Taishi Sawabe, Suguru Honda, Wataru Sato, Tomoki Ishikura, Masayuki Kanbara, Sakiko Yoshikawa, Yuichiro Fujimoto, Hirokazu Kato
Summary: This study demonstrates that combining robot touch with elements of speech can enhance positive emotional responses, including higher subjective valence and arousal ratings, as well as stronger facial electromyography and skin conductance activities.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Review
Neurosciences
Leah M. Mayo, Christine A. Rabinak, Matthew N. Hill, Markus Heilig
Summary: The endocannabinoid system plays a crucial role in fear extinction and stress response, with potential therapeutic implications for conditions like PTSD. Both animal studies and emerging human data support the translation of findings, indicating a promising avenue for therapeutic interventions.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Steven J. Middleton, Irene Perini, Andreas C. Themistocleous, Greg A. Weir, Kirsty McCann, Allison M. Barry, Andrew Marshall, Michael Lee, Leah M. Mayo, Manon Bohic, Georgios Baskozos, India Morrison, Line S. Loken, Sarah McIntyre, Saad S. Nagi, Roland Staud, Isac Sehlstedt, Richard D. Johnson, Johan Wessberg, John N. Wood, Christopher G. Woods, Aziz Moqrich, Hakan Olausson, David L. Bennett
Summary: The study shows that Na(v)1.7 plays a crucial role in regulating C-low threshold mechanoreceptor function, cool sensitivity, and affective touch in addition to pain perception. Patients with loss-of-function mutations in Nav1.7 exhibit congenital insensitivity to pain and abnormalities in the encoding of affective touch. Overall, Na(v)1.7 is essential for normal C-LTMR function and pleasant touch perception.
Article
Neurosciences
Line S. Loken, Helena Backlund Wasling, Hakan Olausson, Francis McGlone, Johan Wessberg
Summary: Unmyelinated tactile (CT) afferents are abundant in hairy skin of the arm, and relatively sparse in the lower leg compared with C-nociceptors. They have similar physiological properties across different nerves. Moreover, they do not respond to the cooling agent menthol or the pruritogen histamine.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Luke J. Ney, Kevin M. Crombie, Leah M. Mayo, Kim L. Felmingham, Tim Bowser, Allison Matthews
Summary: The endocannabinoid system plays an important role in PTSD, and researchers have successfully translated findings from animal studies to human subjects using modern paradigms and methods. This approach offers the potential to gain deeper insights into the impact of endocannabinoid signaling on stress response, emotional and intrusive memories, and fear extinction in PTSD.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rebecca Boehme, Hakan Olausson
Summary: The human brain is able to predict and attenuate the sensory outcomes of one's own actions through efference copies, although the sensory percepts of self-touch are not fully cancelled out. Self-touch has behavioral relevance, helping individuals to refocus attention, calm down, relieve stress, and enjoy themselves.
CURRENT OPINION IN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Anne Margarette S. Maallo, Basil Duvernoy, Hakan Olausson, Sarah McIntyre
Summary: This article discusses the challenges in touch neuroscience research and compares it to vision science. The lack of naturalistic stimuli, especially in social touch research, has hindered progress. However, new methods and recent successes offer hope for overcoming these obstacles.
CURRENT OPINION IN NEUROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gerben B. Ruesink, Francis P. McGlone, Hakan Olausson, Camilla de Jong, Jan-Bernard Marsman, Remco J. Renken, Janniko R. Georgiadis
Summary: Current understanding of human genital-brain interactions primarily focuses on neuroendocrine and autonomic control, with limited exploration of interactions during sexual stimulation. This study presents a systematic approach to identify how the human brain encodes sensory genital information using a validated affective touch paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging. It reveals distinct hedonic responses to discriminatory versus affective tactile stimulation for both penile shaft and forearm, suggesting the presence of small diameter mechanoreceptive nerve fibers that signal pleasant touch in genital skin. The study also highlights the involvement of the secondary somatosensory cortex and the default-mode network in processing genital stimulation and subjective pleasure.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Physiology
Shan Xu, Chang Xu, Sarah McIntyre, Hakan Olausson, Gregory J. Gerling
Summary: This article introduces an interference-free 3D visual tracking system using a depth camera to measure the contact attributes between the bare hand of a toucher and the forearm of a receiver. The system is able to decompose the spatiotemporal changes of hand-to-forearm contact into contact attributes and identify different social messages and gestures based on these attributes. Experimental results demonstrate the spatiotemporal accuracy of the system.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Sarah McIntyre, Steven C. Hauser, Aniko Kusztor, Rebecca Boehme, Athanasia Moungou, Peder Mortvedt Isager, Lina Homman, Giovanni Novembre, Saad S. Nagi, Ali Israr, Ellen A. Lumpkin, Freddy Abnousi, Gregory J. Gerling, Hakan Olausson
Summary: This study explores the role played by specific physical features in interpersonal touch communication. The results show that within close relationships, receivers can identify the intuitive touch expressions of the senders, and we successfully quantified the physical features of touch associated with effective communication.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Lisa Radman, Andrew Wold, Kerstin Norman, Hakan Olausson, Magnus Thordstein
Summary: Electrical accidents result in long-term damage to hand function, and there are currently no recommendations or assessment tools available to evaluate these effects. A study was conducted on 24 patients with self-reported neurosensory symptoms 1 to 5 years after an electrical accident, and compared with 24 healthy controls. The study found that patients had significantly impaired hand function.
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Editorial Material
Psychology, Clinical
Sarah Kratina, Leah M. Mayo
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE
(2023)
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
Connor Haggarty, Madeleine Jones, India Morrison, Markus Heilig, Leah Mayo
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
Anya Bershad, Leah Mayo, Harriet de Wit
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neuroimaging
Morgan Frost-Karlsson, Andrea Johansson Capusan, Irene Perini, Hakan Olausson, Maria Zetterqvist, Per A. Gustafsson, Rebecca Boehme
Summary: This study compared the brain activity of participants with anorexia nervosa, autism spectrum condition, and a comparison group without diagnoses during a self-other-touch task. The results showed that participants with anorexia nervosa had increased neural activity in response to both self-touch and social touch, while participants with autism spectrum condition were mostly comparable to the comparison group. This suggests that there may be differences in body perception and self-other-distinction between anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum condition.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Cybernetics
Shan Xu, Chang Xu, Sarah McIntyre, Hakan Olausson, Gregory J. Gerling
Summary: This study investigates how subtle differences in skin-to-skin contact affect the recognition and rating of emotional messages. The results show that touchers vary contact attributes to convey distinct messages, which can be recognized by receivers. These nuances in touch are also correlated with receivers' emotional arousal and valence.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS
(2022)
Review
Psychology, Biological
Robert W. Levenson
Summary: This article describes the development of paradigms for studying dyadic interaction in the laboratory, methods, and analytics for dealing with dyadic data. It provides research findings from the author and others, with a particular focus on dyadic measures of linkage or synchrony in physiology, expressive behavior, and subjective affective experience.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Thomas M. Olino, Matthew Mattoni
Summary: This study examined brain function in offspring of mothers with and without depression using monetary and social reward tasks. The results showed no significant differences in task activation and functional connectivity between the two groups. The study discussed the possibility of developmental timing in finding differences.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2024)