Interpersonal Affective Touch in a Virtual World: Feeling the Social Presence of Others to Overcome Loneliness

Abstract

Humans are by nature social beings tuned to communicate and interact from the very beginning of their lives. The sense of touch represents the most direct and intimate channel of communication and a powerful means of connection between the self and the others. In our digital age, the development and diffusion of internet-based technologies and virtual environments offer new opportunities of communication overcoming physical distance. It however, happens that social interactions are often mediated, and the tactile aspects of communication are overlooked, thus diminishing the feeling of social presence, which may contribute to an increased sense of social disconnection and loneliness. The current manuscript aims to review the extant literature about the socio-affective dimension of touch and current advancements in interactive virtual environments in order to provide a new perspective on multisensory virtual communication. Specifically, we suggest that interpersonal affective touch might critically impact virtual social exchanges, promoting a sense of co-presence and social connection between individuals, possibly overcoming feelings of sensory loneliness. This topic of investigation will be of crucial relevance from a theoretical perspective aiming to understand how we integrate multisensory signals in processing and making sense of interpersonal exchanges, this is important in both typical and atypical populations. Moreover, it will pave the way to promising applications by exploring the possibility to use technical innovations to communicate more interactively in the case of people who suffer from social isolation and disconnection from others.

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

“…This underlines the importance of bringing the whole multisensory experience of affective touch into hybrid social interactions, where visual information may not be enough to elicit the associated complex neurophysiological mechanisms (Eid and Al Osman 2016). As Della Longa et al (2021) propose, interpersonal virtual touch may positively impact virtual social exchanges, promote social presence and connection, and potentially reduce sensory loneliness.…”

“…Although the mere sight of one's own virtual body from a rst-person perspective can trigger a sense of body ownership (Slater et al 2010), researchers often employ spatiotemporally congruent visuo-tactile stimulation to facilitate the integration of external visual and somatosensory information, thereby promoting embodiment in a virtual body (Rubo and Gamer 2019). However, most consumer-based VR experiences lack the powerful effects of actual touch (i.e., haptic feedback), limiting the potential for non-verbal affective communication in virtual social exchanges (Della Longa et al 2021). This limitation is exacerbated by the technical di culty of incorporating touch in virtual environments, as well as broader considerations regarding the nature of digital touch (for further reading, see the Digital touch manifesto, (Jewitt et al 2021).…”

To touch or to be touched? Comparing pleasantness of vicarious execution and reception of interpersonal touch

“…Further investigations of vicarious touch are needed to shed light on psychopathology conditions characterised by social cognition deficits and altered processing of tactile stimuli, such as autism spectrum conditions (Haggarty et al, 2020; Peled-Avron & Shamay-Tsoory, 2017), eating disorders symptomatology (Cazzato et al, 2021; Bellard et al, 2022; Crucianelli et al, 2016) and schizophrenia (Ebisch et al, 2013). A better understanding of how vicarious touch reception and execution are processed in these disorders might indeed help finding new target for rehabilitation treatments, also considering the potential use of virtual reality to provide multisensory stimulation that can shape touch processing, overcoming at the same time social anxiety often present in these conditions (Della Longa et al, 2022; Spence, 2022).…”

Multimedia Interventions for Neurodiversity: Leveraging Insights from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience to Build an Innovative Practice

“…Beyond the use of IVR for remote peer interaction (i.e., individuals are working together on a shared task or activity, but are physically apart), in-person interaction enables multiple users to work on the same virtual activity while also sharing the real space. The latter option enriches the audio-visual interaction of bodily signals, such as interpersonal touch, which may promote a sense of presence and social connection, thus improving the affective information conveyed during virtual communication [ 50 ]. Compared to reality, IVR may offer unique possibilities to make the exposure gradual and adaptable to the individual while at the same time easily collecting data on the person’s behavior (choices made, type of exploration, up to including eye-tracking and kinematic aspects).…”