Dataset Information

Affective Touch Enhances Self-Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration.

ABSTRACT: Multisensory integration is a powerful mechanism for constructing body awareness and key for the sense of selfhood. Recent evidence has shown that the specialised C tactile modality that gives rise to feelings of pleasant, affective touch, can enhance the experience of body ownership during multisensory integration. Nevertheless, no study has examined whether affective touch can also modulate psychological identification with our face, the hallmark of our identity. The current study used the enfacement illusion paradigm to investigate the role of affective touch in the modulation of self-face recognition during multisensory integration. In the first experiment (N?=?30), healthy participants were stroked on the cheek while they were looking at another face being stroked on the cheek in synchrony or asynchrony with affective (slow; CT-optimal) vs. neutral (fast; CT-suboptimal) touch. In the second experiment (N?=?38) spatial incongruence of touch (cheek vs. forehead) was used as a control condition instead of temporal asynchrony. Overall, our data suggest that CT-optimal, affective touch enhances subjective (but not behavioural) self-face recognition during synchronous and spatially congruent integration of different sensations and possibly reduces deafference during asynchronous multisensory integration. We discuss the role of affective touch in shaping the more social aspects of our self.

SUBMITTER: Panagiotopoulou E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5635121 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Affective Touch Enhances Self-Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration.

Panagiotopoulou Elena E Filippetti Maria Laura ML Tsakiris Manos M Fotopoulou Aikaterini A

Scientific reports 20171010 1

Multisensory integration is a powerful mechanism for constructing body awareness and key for the sense of selfhood. Recent evidence has shown that the specialised C tactile modality that gives rise to feelings of pleasant, affective touch, can enhance the experience of body ownership during multisensory integration. Nevertheless, no study has examined whether affective touch can also modulate psychological identification with our face, the hallmark of our identity. The current study used the enf ...[more]

PMID: 29018230

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Project description:INTRODUCTION:Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterised by restriction of energy intake, fears of gaining weight and related body image disturbances. The oxytocinergic system has been proposed as a pathophysiological candidate for AN. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide involved in bodily processes (eg, breast feeding) and in the onset of social behaviours (eg, bonding). Studies investigating the effect of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) in AN showed that it can improve attentional bias for high-calorie food and fat bodies stimuli, and related stress. However, less is known about the effect of IN-OT on bodily awareness and body image distortions, key features of the disorder linked to its development, prognosis and maintenance. Here, we aim to investigate the effect of IN-OT on the perception of affective, C-tactile-optimal touch, known to be impaired in AN and on multisensory integration processes underlying a body ownership illusion (ie, rubber hand illusion). For exploratory purposes, we will also investigate the effect of IN-OT on another interoceptive modality, namely cardiac awareness and its relationship with affective touch. DESIGN, METHODS AND ANALYSIS:Forty women with AN and forty matched healthy controls will be recruited and tested in two separate sessions; self-administering IN-OT (40 IU) or placebo, intranasally, in a pseudo-randomised manner. The data from this double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study will be analysed using linear mixed models that allow the use of both fixed (treatment levels) and random (subjects) effects in the same analysis. To address our main hypotheses, separate analyses will be run for the affective touch task, where the primary outcome dependent variable will be the pleasantness of the touch, and for the rubber hand illusion, where we will investigate multisensory integration quantified as subjective embodiment towards the rubber hand. In the latter, we will manipulate the synchronicity of touch and the size of the hand. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:Ethics approval has been obtained by National Research Ethics Service NRES Committee London (Queen's Square Committee, ref number 14/LO/1593). The results will be disseminated through conference presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Dataset Information

Affective Touch Enhances Self-Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration.

Publications

Affective Touch Enhances Self-Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration.

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