Pain perception and physiological responses are modulated by active support from a romantic partner

Mazza, Alessandro; Ciorli, Tommaso; Mirlisenna, Ilaria; D'Onofrio, Ilenia; Mantellino, Silvia; Zaccaria, Martina; Pia, Lorenzo; Monte, Olga Dal

doi:10.1111/psyp.14299

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 91 publications

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“…Notably, Affective Touch has been shown to induce an increase in skin conductance (Olausson et al, 2008): a response that can be influenced by salient contextual factors both in the person receiving the touch (Nava et al, 2021) and in the person promoting it (Mazza et al, 2023a). In line with the notion that Affective Touch can also serve as a potential buffer against stressful situations (Mazza et al, 2023b;Morrison, 2016a) it has been linked to reductions in blood pressure (Grewen et al, 2005;Lee and Cichy, 2020), stress hormone levels (Heinrichs et al, 2003;Henricson et al, 2008) and heart rate (Pawling et al, 2017;Triscoli et al, 2017) along with an increase in heart rate variability (Triscoli et al, 2017). Although skin conductance and heart rate have been extensively explored as markers of physiological modulation induced by Affective Touch, pupil dilation, a well-established indicator of physiological activation (Gusso et al, 2021), remains relatively unexplored in this context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Affective Touch is encoded by pupil dilation as a comprehensive social phenomenon

Bonino,

Mazza,

Capiotto

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Affective Touch plays a pivotal role in regulating emotions, fostering social bonds and nurturing affiliations with others. The emotional and arousing dimensions associated to Affective Touch are linked to the activation of the CT- fibres system, an afferent pathway attuned to those specific features of tactile stimulations which characterize gentle human caresses, such as touch velocity and the nature of the stroking source. While previous research has examined the physiological responses in relation to these individual features of Affective Touch, no study has explored how they interact to shape autonomic activity. In this study, we investigated whether and how touch velocity (CT-optimal vs. CT-suboptimal) and the nature of the touching effector (Human hand vs. Artificial hand) influenced the participants’ pupil dilation and their subjective experience during tactile stimulation. We observed a higher pupil dilation when touch was delivered simultaneously at CT-optimal speed and by a human hand. This kind of touch invoked a supralinear enhancement of pupil dilation indicating that the combination of these two features induced a significantly stronger autonomic activation than the summed effects of each delivered separately. Moreover, this specific type of touch was perceived as the most pleasant compared to all other tactile stimulations. Therefore, pupil dilation appears to map the positive and pleasant experience of human-to-human tactile interactions. Collectively, our results support the notion that the autonomic nervous system encodes the emotional and hedonic aspects associated with Affective Touch as a complex and holistic social experience, rather than solely responding to its low-level sensory properties.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Affective Touch is encoded by pupil dilation as a comprehensive social phenomenon

Bonino,

Mazza,

Capiotto

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Verbal Support From a Stranger Reduces the Development of Mechanical Hypersensitivity: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Evidence

Jaltare,

Manresa,

Niwa

et al. 2024

The Journal of Pain

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Hedonic and autonomic responses in promoting affective touch

Mazza

Cariola

Capiotto

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Interpersonal touch is intrinsically reciprocal since it entails a person promoting and another receiving the touch. While several studies have investigated the beneficial effects of receiving affective touch, the affective experience of caressing another individual remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the hedonic and autonomic responses (skin conductance and heart rate) in the person promoting affective touch. We also examined whether interpersonal relationship, gender, and eye contact modulate these responses. As expected, caressing the partner was perceived as more pleasant than caressing a stranger, especially if the affective touch occurred together with mutual eye contact. Promoting affective touch to the partner also resulted in a decrease of both autonomic responses and anxiety levels, suggesting the occurrence of a calming effect. Additionally, these effects were more pronounced in females compared to males, indicating that hedonic and autonomic aspects of affective touch are modulated by both social relationship and gender. These findings show for the first time that caressing a beloved one is not only pleasant but also reduces autonomic responses and anxiety in the person promoting the touch. This might suggest that affective touch has an instrumental role for romantic partners in promoting and reinforcing their affective bonding.

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Pain perception and physiological responses are modulated by active support from a romantic partner

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 5 publications

References 91 publications

Affective Touch is encoded by pupil dilation as a comprehensive social phenomenon

Affective Touch is encoded by pupil dilation as a comprehensive social phenomenon

Verbal Support From a Stranger Reduces the Development of Mechanical Hypersensitivity: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Evidence

Hedonic and autonomic responses in promoting affective touch

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