Pleasant Deep Pressure: Expanding the Social Touch Hypothesis

Case, Laura K.; Liljencrantz, Jaquette; McCall, Micaela V; Bradson, Megan L; Necaise, Aaron; Tubbs, Justin D.; Olausson, Håkan; Wang, Binquan; Bushnell, M. Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.07.050

Cited by 53 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Accordingly, we suggest that the micro-adjustments of bodily contact and the perception of heart rhythms and respiration are reciprocally related to neural synchronization during this non-interactive condition (Cascio, Moore, & McGlone, 2019). Holding the infant could additionally be related to the activation of specific sensory nerve fibers through "pleasant deep pressure" similar to the activation of C-tactile fibers through affectionate touch (Case et al, 2020;Norholt, 2020). Our finding holds many implications in the social domain such that proximity allows the caregiver to co-regulate their infant even when their attention is directed away from the infant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Nguyen

Abney

Salamander

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Caregiver touch plays a vital role in infants’ growth and development across mammalian species, yet its potential role as a communicative signal in human parent-infant interactions has been sparsely investigated this far. We assessed whether touch enhances neural and physiological synchrony in caregiver-infant dyads. We simultaneously measured brain activity (through functional near-infrared spectroscopy) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (through electrocardiography) of 69 4- to 6-month-old infants and their mothers in distal and proximate non-interactive conditions vs. an interactive condition. Findings revealed that neural synchrony was highest during the interaction, next in the proximate, and lowest in the distal non-interactive condition. Physiological synchrony was highest during the interaction and lower in both non-interactive conditions. Furthermore, maternal affectionate touch during the interaction was positively related to neural but not physiological synchrony. This is the first evidence showing that touch mediates mutual attunement of brain activities in infants and their caregivers in naturalistic interactions.Open Science PracticesPreregistration: https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=6hy5n6

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Nguyen

Abney

Salamander

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…7/8 control participants performed near the normal range 49 (one-sided permutation test p = 0.07). b A cartoon depicting the custom-built leg compression sleeve device (from Case et al 50 ). A computer controlled inflation rate and pressure around the left calf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innocuous pressure sensation requires A-type afferents but not functional ΡΙΕΖΟ2 channels in humans

et al. 2021

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The sensation of pressure allows us to feel sustained compression and body strain. While our understanding of cutaneous touch has grown significantly in recent years, how deep tissue sensations are detected remains less clear. Here, we use quantitative sensory evaluations of patients with rare sensory disorders, as well as nerve blocks in typical individuals, to probe the neural and genetic mechanisms for detecting non-painful pressure. We show that the ability to perceive innocuous pressures is lost when myelinated fiber function is experimentally blocked in healthy volunteers and that two patients lacking Aβ fibers are strikingly unable to feel innocuous pressures at all. We find that seven individuals with inherited mutations in the mechanoreceptor PIEZO2 gene, who have major deficits in touch and proprioception, are nearly as good at sensing pressure as healthy control subjects. Together, these data support a role for Aβ afferents in pressure sensation and suggest the existence of an unknown molecular pathway for its detection.

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“…This is not to say that social and affective aspects of touch are only mediated by CT afferents. Touch on glabrous skin can still be pleasant (Francis et al, 1999;Krämer et al, 2007), and deep pressure touch, which occurs for example during massage therapy and hugging, is both pleasant and calming (Case et al, 2020), suggesting that there is more to social and affective touch than activation of CTs. Nevertheless, the CT system is the most well studied.…”

Section: Peripheral Processing Of Touchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain, Touch, and Decision Making : Behavioral and Brain Responses to Affective Somatosensory Stimulation

Koppel

2020

Linköping University Medical Dissertations

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Papers not included in the thesis During my time as a PhD student, I have been involved in a number of different projects investigating a number of different research questions, which have all shaped me as a researcher and contributed to my learning in one way or other. Below is a list of papers, published or under review, to which I have contributed and on which I am included as co-author, but which are not part of the thesis. Five of these papers are multi-lab registered replication reports (

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Pleasant Deep Pressure: Expanding the Social Touch Hypothesis

Cited by 53 publications

References 31 publications

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Innocuous pressure sensation requires A-type afferents but not functional ΡΙΕΖΟ2 channels in humans

Pain, Touch, and Decision Making : Behavioral and Brain Responses to Affective Somatosensory Stimulation

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