Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2024 May 17;19(5):e0293164.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293164. eCollection 2024.

To touch or to be touched? comparing appraisal of vicarious execution and reception of interpersonal touch

Affiliations
Comparative Study

To touch or to be touched? comparing appraisal of vicarious execution and reception of interpersonal touch

Niccolò Butti et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Unmyelinated C-Tactile (CT) fibres are activated by caress-like touch, eliciting a pleasant feeling that decreases for static and faster stroking. Previous studies documented this effect also for vicarious touch, hypothesising simulation mechanisms driving the perception and appreciation of observed interpersonal touch. Notably, less is known about appreciation of vicarious execution of touch, that is as referred to the one giving gentle touch. To address this issue, 53 healthy participants were asked to view and rate a series of videoclips displaying an individual being touched by another on hairy (i.e., hand dorsum) or glabrous (i.e., palm) skin sites, with touch being delivered at CT-optimal (5 cm/s) or non-CT optimal velocities (0 cm/s or 30 cm/s). Following the observation of each clip, participants were asked to rate self-referred desirability and model-referred pleasantness of vicarious touch for both executer (toucher-referred) and receiver (touchee-referred). Consistent with the CT fibres properties, for both self-referred desirability and model-referred pleasantness judgements of vicarious touch execution and reception, participants provided higher ratings for vicarious touch delivered at CT-optimal than other velocities, and when observed CT-optimal touch was delivered to the hand-dorsum compared to the palm. However, higher ratings were attributed to vicarious reception compared to execution of CT-optimal touch. Notably, individual differences in interoceptive trusting and attitude to interpersonal touch were positively correlated with, respectively, toucher- and touchee-related overall appraisal ratings of touch. These findings suggest that the appreciation of both toucher- and touchee-referred vicarious touch is specifically attuned to CT-optimal touch, even though they might rely on different neurocognitive mechanisms to understand affective information conveyed by interpersonal tactile interactions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Examples of video stimuli representing touch delivered on two body sites with all combinations of biological sex of actors.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Boxplot of pleasantness ratings in the vicarious touch task and line graphs of the two-way significant interaction effects.
Dots represent observations; asterisks indicate the velocity level at which the interaction effects were significant.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Scatter plots representing the significant correlations between OTA indexes and the questionnaire scales.
Dots and represent observations; the shaded grey areas represent SE.

Similar articles

References

    1. Montirosso R, McGlone F. The body comes first. Embodied reparation and the co-creation of infant bodily-self. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2020;113: 77–87. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.03.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cascio CJ, Moore D, McGlone F. Social touch and human development. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2019;35: 5–11. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.04.009 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vallbo Å, Olausson H, Wessberg J. Unmyelinated afferents constitute a second system coding tactile stimuli of the human hairy skin. J Neurophysiol. 1999;81: 2753–2763. doi: 10.1152/jn.1999.81.6.2753 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Olausson H, Wessberg J, Morrison I, McGlone F, Vallbo Å. The neurophysiology of unmyelinated tactile afferents. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010;34: 185–191. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.09.011 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ackerley R, Backlund Wasling H, Liljencrantz J, Olausson H, Johnson RD, Wessberg J. Human C-tactile afferents are tuned to the temperature of a skin-stroking caress. J Neurosci. 2014;34: 2879–2883. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2847-13.2014 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

This research was partly supported by grants from Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente 2023, Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea) awarded to CU.