An Interaction Theory Account of (Mediated) Social Touch

Huisman, Gijs

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.830193

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 62 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…Affective touch is by its very nature interactive(Huisman 2022). Its inherent mutuality makes it special because it reduces self-other boundaries, and simultaneously increases the salience of somatosensory information about one's bodily and internal status(Gentsch et al.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, perceived pleasantness, and arousal modulation

Sun,

Banakou,

Świdrak

et al. 2024

Preprint

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When engaging in physical contact, our emotional response hinges not only on the nuanced sensory details and the receptive properties of the skin but also on contextual cues related to the situation and interpersonal dynamics. The consensus is that the nature of the affective interactive experience in social touch is shaped by a combination of ascending, C-tactile (CT) afferents mediated somatosensory information, and modulatory, top-down information. The question we pose here is whether, in the absence of somatosensory input, multisensory cues alone can suffice to create a genuinely pleasant, authentic, and engaging experience in virtual reality. The study aims to explore how affective touch is perceived in immersive virtual environments, considering varied social norms in neutral settings or settings like a physiotherapy room where the touch provider is a healthcare professional. We conducted an experiment with 58 male and female healthy adults, where we employed a within-group counterbalanced design featuring two factors: (a) visuo-tactile affective touch, and (b) visual-only affective touch. Findings, drawn from questionnaires and collected physiological data, shed light on how contextual factors influence implicit engagement, self-reported embodiment, co-presence, as well as the perceived realism and pleasantness of the touch experience. Our findings, in line with the literature, indicate that to experience the advantages of touch in immersive virtual worlds, it is essential to incorporate haptic feedback, as depending solely on visual input may not be adequate for fully realizing the optimal benefits of interpersonal touch. Furthermore, in contradiction with our hypothesis, a less ambiguous context (specifically, the physiotherapy room and touch from a physiotherapist) is not linked to heightened touch pleasantness.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, perceived pleasantness, and arousal modulation

Sun,

Banakou,

Świdrak

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, pleasantness, and arousal modulation

Sun,

Banakou,

Świdrak

et al. 2024

Virtual Reality

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When engaging in physical contact, our emotional response hinges not only on the nuanced sensory details and the receptive properties of the skin but also on contextual cues related to the situation and interpersonal dynamics. The consensus is that the nature of the affective interactive experience in social touch is shaped by a combination of ascending, C-tactile (CT) afferents mediated somatosensory information, and modulatory, top-down information. The question we pose here is whether, in the absence of somatosensory input, multisensory cues alone can suffice to create a genuinely pleasant, authentic, and engaging experience in virtual reality. The study aims to explore how affective touch is perceived in immersive virtual environments, considering varied social norms in neutral settings or settings like a physiotherapy room where the touch provider is a healthcare professional. We conducted an experiment with 58 male and female healthy adults, where we employed a within-group counterbalanced design featuring two factors: (a) visuo-tactile affective touch, and (B) visual-only affective touch. Findings, drawn from questionnaires and collected physiological data, shed light on how contextual factors influence implicit engagement, self-reported embodiment, co-presence, as well as the perceived realism and pleasantness of the touch experience. Our findings, in line with the literature, indicate that to experience the advantages of touch in immersive virtual worlds, it is essential to incorporate haptic feedback, as depending solely on visual input may not be adequate for fully realising the optimal benefits of interpersonal touch. Furthermore, in contradiction with our hypothesis, a less ambiguous context (specifically, the physiotherapy room and touch from a physiotherapist) is not linked to heightened touch pleasantness.

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Haptics in social interaction with agents and avatars in virtual reality: a systematic review

Jacucci,

Bellucci,

Ahmed

et al. 2024

Virtual Reality

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Incorporating the sense of touch through haptics in virtual spaces enables people to communicate emotions and engage in more naturalistic and meaningful social interactions. Advances in haptics and virtual reality technologies and applications have been essential to support researchers in the exploration of mediated social touch in virtual environments. The aim of this work is to review the last decade of research on haptics and virtual reality technologies investigating social touch behavior between human avatars as well as between humans and non-human virtual agents. Our systematic review organizes the variety of the conducted research in three dimensions: the context against which mediated social touch is studied, the types of haptics and virtual reality technology used, and empirical studies including data collected and outcome measures. We discuss the results of the analysis of the three dimensions and present implications for future research. We pinpoint the importance of considering in-the-wild studies and emerging issues on social virtual reality; understanding human touch perception for people with different physical and cognitive abilities, and; creating development tools to broaden the exploration of advanced technological setups.

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An Interaction Theory Account of (Mediated) Social Touch

Cited by 5 publications

References 62 publications

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, perceived pleasantness, and arousal modulation

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, perceived pleasantness, and arousal modulation

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, pleasantness, and arousal modulation

Haptics in social interaction with agents and avatars in virtual reality: a systematic review

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