The social buffering of pain by affective touch: a laser-evoked potential study in romantic couples

Abstract

Pain is modulated by social context. Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that romantic partners can provide a potent form of social support during pain. However, such studies have only focused on passive support, finding a relatively late-onset modulation of pain-related neural processing. In this study, we examined for the first time dynamic touch by one’s romantic partner as an active form of social support. Specifically, 32 couples provided social, active, affective (vs active but neutral) touch according to the properties of a specific C-tactile afferent pathway to their romantic partners, who then received laser-induced pain. We measured subjective pain ratings and early N1 and later N2-P2 laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) to noxious stimulation, as well as individual differences in adult attachment style. We found that affective touch from one’s partner reduces subjective pain ratings and similarly attenuates LEPs both at earlier (N1) and later (N2-P2) stages of cortical processing. Adult attachment style did not affect LEPs, but attachment anxiety had a moderating role on pain ratings. This is the first study to show early neural modulation of pain by active, partner touch, and we discuss these findings in relation to the affective and social modulation of sensory salience.

The dynamics of pain reappraisal: the joint contribution of cognitive change and mental load

“…Finally, the resulting clusters were subjected to ANOVA statistics to determine the effects of reappraisal condition and intensity. Additionally, a classic ERP analysis was performed by which we estimated the effect of condition on the N2-P2 mean amplitude difference at the typically analyzed vertex Cz electrode (Albu & Meagher, 2019;Bromm & Lorenz, 1998;Meier, Klucken, Soyka, & Bromm, 1993;von Mohr, Krahé, Beck, & Fotopoulou, 2018) using 100-130 ms and 220-260 ms time-windows, respectively. To examine the impact of different tasks on the N2-P2 amplitudes, a one-way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted with the Instruction (down-regulation, no-regulation, up-regulation) as the repeated-measure factor.…”

Affective touch experiences across the lifespan: Development of the Tactile Biography questionnaire and the mediating role of attachment style

“…This type of touch is key for the communication of emotions and for social affiliative behaviors [ 6 , 7 ]. Additionally, affective touch has been associated, among others, with psychological well-being [ 8 ], body representations [ 9 ] and buffering of pain and stress systems [ 10 , 11 ].…”

Calming Effects of Touch in Human, Animal, and Robotic Interaction—Scientific State-of-the-Art and Technical Advances

“…In a within-subject design, von Mohr et al ( 85 ) compared different stroke frequencies and found that the partner's slow touch (in comparison to fast touch) reduced pain levels to standard pain in the laboratory. This data was in line with earlier results from the same group (however, not in couples) that slow affective touch reduced feelings of social exclusion during the Cyberball task ( 86 ).…”