Right between the eyes: Corrugator muscle activity tracks the changing pleasantness of repeated slow stroking touch

Ree, Anbjørn; Bendas, Johanna; Pabel, Luise; Sailer, Uta

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112903

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The touch evoked no significant changes in the corrugator activity of the receivers, in contrast to previous studies showing reduced corrugator activity (Mayo et al, 2018;Ree et al, 2020) in response to pleasant touch.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

The language of social touch is intuitive and quantifiable

McIntyre¹,

Hauser²,

Kusztor³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Touch is a powerful communication tool, but we have a limited understanding of the role played by particular physical features of interpersonal touch communication. In this study, adults living in Sweden performed a task in which messages (attention, love, happiness, calming, sadness and gratitude) were conveyed by a sender touching the forearm of a receiver, who interpreted the messages. Two experiments (n=32, n=20) showed that within close relationships, receivers could identify the intuitive touch expressions of the senders, and we characterized the physical features of the touches associated with successful communication. Facial expressions measured with EMG varied by message, but were uncorrelated with communication performance. We developed standardized touch expressions and quantified the physical features with 3D hand-tracking. In two further experiments (n=20, n=16), these were conveyed by trained senders and were readily understood by naïve strangers. Thus, the possibility emerges of a standardized, intuitively understood language of social touch.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

The language of social touch is intuitive and quantifiable

McIntyre¹,

Hauser²,

Kusztor³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Opposite to previous evidence (e.g., Korb, Götzendorfer, et al, 2020;Ree et al, 2020), in this phase greater frowning was associated with greater subjective wanting in both groups (Wanting: F(1,1203) = 7.94, FDR p = 0.036) (Figure 3D). No significant effects were observed in other phases of the task.…”

Section: Corrugator (Frowning)contrasting

confidence: 89%

“…During reward anticipation (announcement of the best attainable reward), the increased subjective wanting of social touch in the morphine group was accompanied by greater activity of the corrugator muscle. Previous research indicates that individuals relax the corrugator during anticipation and consumption of rewarding stimuli, showing an inverse relationship between corrugator activity and reward wanting/liking (Korb, Götzendorfer, et al, 2020;Massaccesi et al, 2021;Mayo et al, 2018;Ree et al, 2020;Sato et al, 2020). Here, in contrast, we observed greater frowning for most wanted stimuli.…”

Section: Morphine-induced Increased Negative Reaction To Stress Is Associated With Enhanced Social Motivationcontrasting

confidence: 64%

Opioid-blunted cortisol response to stress is associated to increased negative mood and wanting of social reward

Massaccesi

Willeit

Quednow

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Animal research suggests a central role of the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) system in mediating contact seeking and the stress-buffering function of social touch. However, the human neurochemistry of social motivation in aversive situations is still poorly understood. In a randomized, double-blind, between-subject design, healthy female volunteers (N = 80) received either 10 mg of the mu-opioid agonist morphine sulfate or a placebo. Following psychosocial stress induction, participants engaged in a social reward task, in which the motivation (subjective ratings of wanting and physical effort) to obtain skin-to-skin social touch and the hedonic reactions (subjective ratings of liking and facial electromyography) elicited by it were assessed. Morphine administration prevented the increase of salivary cortisol, usually observed in response to acute stress exposure. The dampened physiological reaction to the psychosocial stress was associated with increased negative mood and subsequent higher subjective wanting of the most pleasurable touch. Furthermore, participants administered with morphine displayed greater activity of the corrugator muscle during reward anticipation, possibly tracking enhanced attention toward the social stimuli. Overall, the results provide novel evidence on the effect of exogenous opioids administration on the reactions to psychosocial stress and point to a state-dependent regulation of social motivation.

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“…The odour condition was applied in 36 participants and will not be covered in this publication. For more information on the odour condition and the results, we refer to our recent publication (Ree et al, 2020).…”

Section: Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For more detailed information on the physiological data we refer to another publication where the course of EMG and ECG data throughout the experiment is presented both graphically and statistically analyzed (see Ree et al, 2020). In the present study, we focused on the individual dynamics of affective habituation to touch and its relation to physiological and behavioral data.…”

Section: Data Clustering and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%