Synchrony of Caresses: Does Affective Touch Help Infants to Detect Body-Related Visual–Tactile Synchrony?

Abstract

Bodily self-awareness, that is the ability to sense and recognize our body as our own, involves the encoding and integration of a wide range of multisensory and motor signals. Infants' abilities to detect synchrony and bind together sensory information in time and space critically contribute to the process of gradual bodily self-awareness. In particular, early tactile experiences may have a crucial role in promoting self-other differentiation and developing bodily self-awareness. More specifically affective touch, slow and gentle touch linked to the neurophysiologically specialized system of C-tactile afferents, provides both information about the body from within (interoception) and outside (exteroception), suggesting it may be a key component contributing to the experience of bodily self-awareness. The present study aimed to investigate the role of affective touch in the formation and modulation of body perception from the earliest stages of life. Using a preferential looking task, 5-month-old infants were presented with synchronous and asynchronous visuo-tactile body-related stimuli. The socio-affective valence of the tactile stimuli was manipulated by means of the velocity [CT-optimal (slow) touch vs. CT-suboptimal (fast) touch] and the source of touch (human hand vs. brush). For the first time, we show that only infants that were stroked using a brush at slow velocity displayed a preference for the visual-tactile synchronous video, suggesting that CT-optimal touch might help infants to detect body-related visual-tactile synchrony, independently from the source of touch. Our results are in line with findings from adults and indicate that affective touch might have a critical role in the early development of bodily self-awareness.

The development of body representations: an associative learning account

“…Besides playing an important role in bonding, these experiences of affective touch also allow infants to form associations between visual, tactile and proprioceptive bodily representations. Indeed, a recent study [58] found that five-month-old infants showed a preference for body-related visual-tactile synchrony when they received slow velocity CT-optimal affective touch, but not when they receive faster velocity non-affective touch. Although the relationship between this preference and the infants' previous experience with receiving affective touch was not investigated, these findings suggest that slow, caress-like touch, may facilitate the development of multisensory body representations in infancy.…”

Capturing touch in parent–infant interaction: A comparison of methods

“…Videos were coded frame by frame using Datavyu software (Datavyu Team, 2014), widely used for coding infant data (e.g., Crespo‐Llado et al, 2018; Della Longa et al, 2020) at 30 frames per second. For both conditions, PCI‐FP and PCI‐Q, 5 min of interaction were coded, starting with the third and ending with the seventh minute of the interaction in each condition.…”

The Role of Affectionate Caregiver Touch in Early Neurodevelopment and Parent–Infant Interactional Synchrony

“…On the part of the infant, experiences of affectionate touch appear to support the development of bodily self-awareness, which in turn permits bodily attunement with their mothers ( Montirosso and McGlone, 2020 ). Touch may perform this role by facilitating the coordination of sensory processing across modalities: in a recent study, infants detected and showed a preference for synchronous visuo-tactile stimuli over asynchronous stimuli while experiencing CT-targeted gentle stroking, but not during other touch ( Della Longa et al, 2020 ). As interactional synchrony requires awareness of self and other, and takes place through coupled auditory, tactile, and visual signaling, affectionate touch may be a critical precursor to the infant’s detection of and participation in communicative rhythms.…”