What are C-tactile afferents and how do they relate to “affective touch”?

Schirmer, Annett; Ackerley, Rochelle

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105236

Cited by 25 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Recently, there has been a growing interest in broadening the focus to a wider spectrum of tactile gestures with affective meanings, going beyond the gentle stroking that has long been studied as optimal for activating CT afferents. Research showed that the combination of several physical parameters of touch, such as velocity, amplitude, intensity (or amount of force applied), duration, body site, type of touch (e.g., holding, shaking, tapping, stroking, squeezing, poking) and temperature affect the individual's emotional experience of social touch (Schirmer et al 2023). For example, someone holding another's arm with their whole hand could be perceived as communicating sadness, a gentle stroking may be comforting and a fast tapping with multiple ngers could express happiness (McIntyre et al 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Sun,

Banakou,

Świdrak

et al. 2024

Preprint

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When engaging in physical contact, our emotional response hinges not only on the nuanced sensory details and the receptive properties of the skin but also on contextual cues related to the situation and interpersonal dynamics. The consensus is that the nature of the affective interactive experience in social touch is shaped by a combination of ascending, C-tactile (CT) afferents mediated somatosensory information, and modulatory, top-down information. The question we pose here is whether, in the absence of somatosensory input, multisensory cues alone can suffice to create a genuinely pleasant, authentic, and engaging experience in virtual reality. The study aims to explore how affective touch is perceived in immersive virtual environments, considering varied social norms in neutral settings or settings like a physiotherapy room where the touch provider is a healthcare professional. We conducted an experiment with 58 male and female healthy adults, where we employed a within-group counterbalanced design featuring two factors: (a) visuo-tactile affective touch, and (b) visual-only affective touch. Findings, drawn from questionnaires and collected physiological data, shed light on how contextual factors influence implicit engagement, self-reported embodiment, co-presence, as well as the perceived realism and pleasantness of the touch experience. Our findings, in line with the literature, indicate that to experience the advantages of touch in immersive virtual worlds, it is essential to incorporate haptic feedback, as depending solely on visual input may not be adequate for fully realizing the optimal benefits of interpersonal touch. Furthermore, in contradiction with our hypothesis, a less ambiguous context (specifically, the physiotherapy room and touch from a physiotherapist) is not linked to heightened touch pleasantness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Sun,

Banakou,

Świdrak

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Slow interpersonal stroking is perceived as soothing and relaxing in humans and higher on arousal/love and intimacy intentions, whilst fast interpersonal stroking is perceived as higher on fear and threat-signalling intentions. The effect of touch velocity on perceived intentions is, in part, because, gentle and caressing touch at ~ 1 to 10 cm/s is sub-served by C-low threshold mechanoreceptors (C-LTMRs) -which innervate the hairy skin and are involved in the perception of affective or social touch (see McGlone et al, 2014, Sailer & Leknes, 2022Saarinen et al, 2021;Schirmer et al, 2023;Morrison et al, 2010;Olausson et al, 2010, for reviews and seminal papers).…”

Section: Human Capacity Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous reviews have used a variety of definitions of the tactile system, focusing on: (1) agency (i.e., active [touching something] vs. passive [being touched by something]; Gallace & Spence, 2010;Schirmer et al, 2022); (2) afferent type (i.e., discriminative [objectbased touch; involving myelinated afferents] vs. affective [interpersonal touch, involving unmyelinated afferents on hairy skin; McGlone et al, 2007McGlone et al, , 2014); (3) interpersonal function (Olausson et al, 2010;Schirmer et al, 2023) and (4) sub-modality (thermal, itch, texture, pain; Abraira & Ginty, 2013;Gallace & Spence, 2010). To provide the broadest definition of touch, we include any percept arising from contact with and to the body surface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Functions of Human Touch: An Integrative Review

Saluja,

Croy,

Stevenson

2024

J Nonverbal Behav

Self Cite

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There appears to be no attempt to categorize the specific classes of behavior that the tactile system underpins. Awareness of how an organism uses touch in their environment informs understanding of its versatility in non-verbal communication and tactile perception. This review categorizes the behavioral functions underpinned by the tactile sense, by using three sources of data: (1) Animal data, to assess if an identified function is conserved across species; (2) Human capacity data, indicating whether the tactile sense can support a proposed function; and (3) Human impaired data, documenting the impacts of impaired tactile functioning (e.g., reduced tactile sensitivity) for humans. From these data, three main functions pertinent to the tactile sense were identified: Ingestive Behavior; Environmental Hazard Detection and Management; and Social Communication. These functions are reviewed in detail and future directions are discussed with focus on social psychology, non-verbal behavior and multisensory perception.

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“…The sensory function of touch by CT afferents is linked to pleasure and emotions (affective input) and provides a peripheral mechanism for signalling pleasant skin‐to‐skin contact in humans 41,44 . This emotional dimension of touch, called “affective touch”, refers to any tactile processing with a hedonic and/or a motivational value and is underpinned by anatomical pathways distinguishable from discriminative touch 45–47 . While discriminative touch mainly elicits the activation of somatosensory cortex, 41 the main target in the brain for the processing of these CT‐mediated pleasant properties of touch is the insular cortex, which plays an important role in the processing of emotions 48 .…”

Section: The Neuroscience Of Affective Touchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 41 , 44 This emotional dimension of touch, called “affective touch”, refers to any tactile processing with a hedonic and/or a motivational value and is underpinned by anatomical pathways distinguishable from discriminative touch. 45 , 46 , 47 While discriminative touch mainly elicits the activation of somatosensory cortex, 41 the main target in the brain for the processing of these CT‐mediated pleasant properties of touch is the insular cortex, which plays an important role in the processing of emotions. 48 Affective touch reduces activation of areas related to pain processing, namely the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, and reduces electrically‐induced itch, through activation of regions involved in pleasure and reward.…”

Section: The Neuroscience Of Affective Touchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The skin‐brain connection and pleasant touch as supportive care for psychocutaneous disorders

Ferreira,

Aguirre,

Rapoport‐Hubschman

et al. 2023

Skin Health and Disease

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Psychodermatology is a subdiscipline of dermatology at the intersection of dermatology, psychiatry, and psychology. In dermatology clinical practice, patients may present with skin disease that affects their mental health, or skin disorders induced or worsened by psychological/psychiatric problems so there is a need for specialised education of dermatologists, as well as multidisciplinary teams, to achieve better management of these patients. Understanding the interaction between the central nervous system and the skin underlying psychocutaneous disorders could help identify alternative therapies that may improve patient well‐being. The concept of pleasurable touch has received increasing attention following the discovery of C‐tactile (CT) fibres. While afferent C‐fibre stimulation is usually associated with pain, temperature, or itch, CT‐fibres are stimulated optimally by a stimulus not in the nociceptor range but by a gentle, low‐force stroking. As this affective touch may counteract unpleasurable sensations, such as pain and itch, and elicit positive feelings, the potential benefits of gentle touch and massage are interesting for dermatological, especially psychocutaneous, disorders. Here we provide an overview of the skin‐brain connection to help understand the benefits of touch and massage, as illustrated with studies on atopic dermatitis and burns, as an adjunct to dermatological treatment for improving patient well‐being and optimising treatment outcomes.

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What are C-tactile afferents and how do they relate to “affective touch”?

Cited by 25 publications

References 82 publications

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

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

The Functions of Human Touch: An Integrative Review

The skin‐brain connection and pleasant touch as supportive care for psychocutaneous disorders

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