Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that altered responses to affective touch—a pleasant interoceptive stimulus associated with activation of the C-Tactile (CT) system—may contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of mental conditions characterised by body image disturbances (e.g., Anorexia Nervosa). Here, we investigated whether tactile pleasantness and intensity differ across body sites, and if individual differences in dysmorphic appearance concerns and body and emotional awareness might be associated with touch perceptions across body sites. To this end, we measured perceived pleasantness and intensity of gentle, dynamic stroking touches applied to the palm, forearm, face, abdomen and back of 30 female participants (mean age: 25.87±1.17yrs) using CT-optimal (3 cm/s) and non-CT optimal (0.3 and 30 cm/s) stroking touch. As expected, participants rated CT-targeted touch as more pleasant compared to the two non-CT optimal stroking touch at all body sites. Regardless of stroking velocity, touch applied to the abdomen elicited the lowest pleasantness ratings. Lower levels of emotional awareness, greater levels of interoceptive sensibility and of dysmorphic concerns were associated with lower preference for CT-optimal stroking touch applied to the forearm and the back. These findings begin to elucidate the link between CT sensitivity, dysmorphic appearance concerns and body and emotional awareness, which may have implications for future research looking to inform early interventions. Addressing impaired processing of affective interoceptive stimuli, such as CT-targeted touch, may be the key to current treatment approaches available for those populations at risk of disorders characterised by body image disturbance.
Highlights
Touch is a crucial means of receiving information from the outside world by mediating our interactions with objects, and other individuals
This study aimed to: a) investigate whether pleasantness and intensity ratings of touch vary across different body sites, b) explore associations between Eating Disorders (EDs) and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) traits with gentle touch applied at several body sites and in particular at emotionally salient body sites, i.e., abdomen and face; c) explore the relationship between self-reports of interoceptive sensibility and of emotional awareness with tactile experience at these varying body sites
The results show that, as expected, perception of touch varied across skin sites according to both tactile pleasantness and intensity
Summary
Touch is a crucial means of receiving information from the outside world by mediating our interactions with objects, and other individuals. The relationship between CT activation and stroke velocity is best described by an inverted U-shaped regression, with the greatest response at 3 cm/s, and weaker responses at slower (0.1 cm/s) and faster velocities (30 cm/s) [3, 4]. This response pattern strongly correlates with subjective ratings of stimulus pleasantness and velocity preference [3]
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