Disorganized Attachment pattern affects the perception of Affective Touch

Abstract

Touch, such as affective caress, can be interpreted as being pleasant. The emotional valence that is assigned to touch is related to certain bottom-up factors, such as the optimal activation of C-tactile (CT) afferents. Tactile processing with a hedonic or emotional component has been defined as affective touch-a component that CT fibers are likely to convey. Tactile deficiencies are frequent in the psychiatric population but also in healthy people with disorganized attachment; accordingly, it is likely that affective difficulties in adults with disorganized attachment are reflected in altered perception of affective touch. To test this hypothesis, we combined methods from clinical psychology, psychophysics, and neuroimaging. We found that people with a history of traumatic parental bonds and a disorganized attachment pattern perceive a "caress-like" stimulus as being unpleasant, whereas participants with organized attachment consider the same tactile stimulation to be pleasant. Further, unlike in organized adults, the responses of disorganized adults to CT and non-CT stimulation activated limbic and paralimbic structures in a fight-or-flight manner, suggesting that early experiences with parental deficiencies shape the physiological responses of peripheral CT fibers and central nervous networks. In humans, touch is the first sensory system to develop 1,2. The earliest sensations that we experience are tactile. At 12 weeks of gestation, the cutaneous receptors and somatosensory functions have matured 3 , and the fetus is able to make movements when their lips are touched 4 ; in contrast, other sensory modalities, such as hearing and vision, develop later. The early emergence of tactile functions in fetal growth suggests that its initial tactile experiences are crucial for the development and maturation of an organism. This hypothesis has been demonstrated in several developmental pathways, from biological growth 1 and psychological maturity 5 to achievements in social skills 6. Sigmund Freud, whose background was in neurophysiology, defined the skin as the "first psychological organ" 7. Despite the evidence that has posited the primacy of touch in human development, we owe the first attempts to link the sense of touch to social, cognitive, and affective domains to studies on animals, among which research by Harlow 8,9 on rhesus monkeys remains a cornerstone. In his famous studies, Harlow demonstrated that infant rhesus monkeys preferred to cling to a surrogate wire mother that was covered in warm cloth than to one that provided milk but comprised only wires. Harlow also observed that on experiencing a sudden frightening stimulus, the cloth model was again preferred to the wire mother, wherein the monkeys sought immediate physical contact with the cloth model, after which their fear subsided. Based on these findings, Harlow suggested that the absence of comforting touch led to psychological stress in the monkeys. Likely, these studies provided the seminal evidence of the influential function of bodily contact in t...

Bliss in and Out of the Body: The (Extra)Corporeal Space Is Impervious to Social Pleasant Touch

“…Indeed, it is well-known that inter-subject differences are certainly a crucial aspect when studying interoception, which is based on participant's inner sense [57] and may become even more relevant in case of hedonic haptic contact [58,59]. Previous work has shown that other factors, such as autistic traits [18,60] (for a different perspective see [61,62]), motivational states [63], attachment style [64,65], sex [66], and behavioral inhibition system sensitivity [59] modulate affective touch. In support of this perspective, it is worth underlying that the general experience of touch-and not specifically the affective one-entails different brain responses among individuals even when tactile expectancy and attentional level are carefully taken under control [67].…”

“…Despite the new scientific evidence given by our study, it is not immune from some limitations. First of all, when selecting the neutral touch, we opted for a slower stroking (18 cm/sec) (for a similar procedure, see: [14,17,23,25,26,90,91]) compared to that mostly used in the literature (30 cm/sec) (for a similar procedure, see: [4,5,7,12,16,[31][32][33]65] as the counterpart of the pleasant stimulation). The reduced experimental evidence about the haptic stimulation delivered at such velocity could have somehow impacted our data.…”

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

“…Though not specific to tactile interactions, a longitudinal study showed higher caregiver nurturance at age 3 was associated with declines in attachment avoidance in adolescent in young adults [ 65 ]. Recently, Spitoni and collaborators [ 49 ] experimentally showed that attachment patterns affect the perception of affective touch in adults. They examined whether people with disorganized attachment (scores that were related to experiences of loss, abuse, or both regarding primary caregivers) perceived affective touch as being less pleasant than those with organized attachment.…”

“…The same authors later showed in an experimental setting that attachment anxiety affected discrimination in self-reported pleasantness between affective and non-affective touch, with increasing levels of attachment anxiety leading to a decrease discrimination between conditions [ 48 ]. In a recent study Spitoni et al [ 49 ] analysed whether the perception of affective touch differed between adults with different attachment patterns. In contrast with adults with an organized attachment pattern, those with disorganized attachment did not perceive affective touch as pleasant, showing preference for non-affective touch.…”

Attachment Patterns of Adolescent Patients with Mood Disorders and Their Parents

“…There are 36 items in the questionnaire, which are scored on a scale of 1 to 4. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire are good, with Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.70 and half reliability of 0.64 [7].…”