Infants discriminate the source of social touch at stroking speeds eliciting maximal firing rates in CT-fibers

Aguirre, Marie; Couderc, Auriane; Epinat-Duclos, Justine; Mascaro, Olivier

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100639

Cited by 41 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 81 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, 9-month-old infants have been shown to modulate their cardiac response to affective touch not just on the basis of mechanical properties but also according to its social source. Specifically, infants' heart rate decreased more in response to stroke when their parent rather than the experimenter was present and this effect was found only for CT-optimal velocity (Aguirre et al, 2019). These findings may suggest that 9-month-old infants' ability to respond to affective touch, based on the activation of the C-tactile system, support affective-motivational processing of tactile stimulation, and particularly so in socio relevant context.…”

Section: Groupmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Our results are in line with developmental studies that show infants' behavioral, physiological, and neural sensitivity to affective touch. Indeed, affective touch has been shown to be effective in reducing infants' responses to stress (Stack and Muir, 1992), promote physical and neuro-cognitive development (Feldman et al, 2014), and modulate physiological state (Fairhurst et al, 2014;Aguirre et al, 2019). Moreover, a recent study reported activation of insular cortex in response to affective touch from 2 months of life (Jönsson et al, 2018) suggesting that infants are sensitive to interoceptive properties of affective touch from the earlies stages of life.…”

Section: Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Synchrony of Caresses: Does Affective Touch Help Infants to Detect Body-Related Visual–Tactile Synchrony?

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bodily self-awareness, that is the ability to sense and recognize our body as our own, involves the encoding and integration of a wide range of multisensory and motor signals. Infants' abilities to detect synchrony and bind together sensory information in time and space critically contribute to the process of gradual bodily self-awareness. In particular, early tactile experiences may have a crucial role in promoting self-other differentiation and developing bodily self-awareness. More specifically affective touch, slow and gentle touch linked to the neurophysiologically specialized system of C-tactile afferents, provides both information about the body from within (interoception) and outside (exteroception), suggesting it may be a key component contributing to the experience of bodily self-awareness. The present study aimed to investigate the role of affective touch in the formation and modulation of body perception from the earliest stages of life. Using a preferential looking task, 5-month-old infants were presented with synchronous and asynchronous visuo-tactile body-related stimuli. The socio-affective valence of the tactile stimuli was manipulated by means of the velocity [CT-optimal (slow) touch vs. CT-suboptimal (fast) touch] and the source of touch (human hand vs. brush). For the first time, we show that only infants that were stroked using a brush at slow velocity displayed a preference for the visual-tactile synchronous video, suggesting that CT-optimal touch might help infants to detect body-related visual-tactile synchrony, independently from the source of touch. Our results are in line with findings from adults and indicate that affective touch might have a critical role in the early development of bodily self-awareness.

show abstract

Section: Groupmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrony of Caresses: Does Affective Touch Help Infants to Detect Body-Related Visual–Tactile Synchrony?

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is also a communication channel that enriches interpersonal relationships from infancy onward and allows us to improve social cognition. In a recent study, Aguirre and colleagues [77] have shown in normal 9-month-old infants, stroked to the legs with a brush at a different speed by either an unfamiliar experimenter or a caregiver, that the child's heart rate decreased more, showing greater relaxation, when strokes were given by caregivers rather than by strangers. Moreover, this effect was found only for tactile stimulation whose velocity was maximal mean firing rates in afferent C-tactile fibers.…”

Section: Social Touch and Social Communicationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Noli Me Tangere: Social Touch, Tactile Defensiveness, and Communication in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Smirni

Carotenuto

et al. 2019

Brain Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tactile defensiveness is a common feature in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Since the first studies, tactile defensiveness has been described as the result of an abnormal response to sensory stimulation. Moreover, it has been studied how the tactile system is closely linked to socio-communicative development and how the interoceptive sensory system supports both a discriminating touch and an affective touch. Therefore, several neurophysiological studies have been conducted to investigate the neurobiological basis of the development and functioning of the tactile system for a better understanding of the tactile defensiveness behavior and the social touch of NDDs. Given the lack of recent literature on tactile defensiveness, the current study provides a brief overview of the original contributions on this research topic in children with NDDs focusing attention on how this behavior has been considered over the years in the clinical setting.

show abstract

“…Secondly, caregiver touch enhances parasympathetic function. Throughout infancy, both maternal and paternal touch triggers cardiac deceleration, but only when it involves stroking at speeds that optimally activate CTs (Aguirre et al, 2019;Manzotti et al, 2019;Van Puyvelde et al, 2019). Similarly, neonatal skin-to-skin contact promotes heart rate stabilization and arousal regulation, as well as greater and more rapid weight gain (Feldman et al, 2002b;Cong et al, 2012;Samra et al, 2013).…”

Section: B Autonomic Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, nine-month-old infants show greater parasympathetic responses to CT-targeted (stroking at 3 cm/s) in the presence of their parents (Aguirre et al, 2019). Furthermore, when six to eight-month-old infants are gently stroked, they prefer to watch their mother receive synchronous touch over asynchronous touch, but do not show such a preference when gazing at strangers (Maister et al, 2020).…”

Section: A Affiliative Bondingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of caregiver touch in early neurodevelopment and parent-infant interactional synchrony

Carozza¹,

Leong²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Though rarely included in studies of parent-infant interactions, affectionate touch plays a unique and vital role in infant development. Previous studies in human and rodent models have established that early and consistent affectionate touch from a caregiver confers wide-ranging and holistic benefits for infant psychosocial and neurophysiological development. We begin by providing a brief review of how affectionate touch tunes the development of infant somatosensory, autonomic (stress regulation) and immune systems. Affective touch also plays a foundational role in the establishment of social affiliative bonds and early psychosocial behavior. These touch-related bonding effects are known to be mediated primarily by the oxytocin system, but touch also activates mesocorticolimbic dopamine and endogenous opioid systems which aid the development of social cognitive processes such as social learning and reward processing. We conclude by proposing a unique role for affectionate touch as an essential pathway to establishing and maintaining parent-infant interactional synchrony at behavioural, physiological and neural levels. The limitations of the current understanding of affectionate touch in infant development point to fruitful avenues for future research.

show abstract

Infants discriminate the source of social touch at stroking speeds eliciting maximal firing rates in CT-fibers

Cited by 41 publications

References 81 publications

Synchrony of Caresses: Does Affective Touch Help Infants to Detect Body-Related Visual–Tactile Synchrony?

Synchrony of Caresses: Does Affective Touch Help Infants to Detect Body-Related Visual–Tactile Synchrony?

Noli Me Tangere: Social Touch, Tactile Defensiveness, and Communication in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The role of caregiver touch in early neurodevelopment and parent-infant interactional synchrony

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About