Abstract
The sense of touch is the first manner of contact with the external world, providing a foundation for the development of sensorimotor skills and socio-affective behaviors. In particular, affective touch is at the core of early interpersonal interactions and the developing bodily self, promoting the balance between internal physiological state and responsiveness to external environment. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether newborns are able to discriminate between affective touch and non-affective somatosensory stimulations and whether affective touch promotes a positive physiological state. We recorded full-term newborns’ (N = 30) heart rate variability (HRV)—which reflects oscillations of heart rate associated with autonomic cardio-respiratory regulation—while newborns were presented with two minutes of affective (stroking) and non-affective (tapping) touch alternated with two minutes of resting in a within-subject design. The results revealed that non-affective touch elicits a decrease in HRV, whereas affective touch does not result in a change of HRV possibly indicating maintenance of calm physiological state. Thus, newborns showed cardiac sensitivity to different types of touch, suggesting that early somatosensory stimulation represents scaffolding for development of autonomic self-regulation with important implications on infant’s ability to adaptively respond to the surrounding social and physical environment.
Highlights
The infant’s abilities to assimilate information and to adapt to the sensory environment are critical for cognitive and social development
To the end of investigating whether newborns show physiological sensitivity to different types of tactile stimulation, as reflected by heart rate variability (HRV) modulation, we considered the differential root mean squared successive differences (RMSSD) score during the tactile stimulation compared to the pre-stimulus resting period
RMSSD score with the null level were separately performed for each type of tactile stimulation in order to explore whether the fact of being touch elicited a change in newborns’
Summary
The infant’s abilities to assimilate information and to adapt to the sensory environment are critical for cognitive and social development. Self-regulation refers to the mechanism that supports the integration and organization of various processes at the physiological, emotional, attentional and cognitive levels [2]. Higher order mechanisms of self-regulation (e.g., cognitive control) are not predetermined but rather emerge from the interplay between early developing lower level physiological regulatory functions and environmental influences [3]. Given the essential importance of maintain homeostasis and regulating organism-environmental exchanges in the neonatal period, physiological regulatory capacities are a primary objective since the very first stages of development and are hierarchically integrated with emerging new skills, such as emotion and attention regulatory processes [3]. Initial regulatory capacities can be evidenced in the newborns’ ability to adaptively modulate the neurobehavioral state, meaning the basic biological rhythm that alternates sleep and wake states. Newborns spend most of their time resting in the sleeping state, alternating cycles of quiet sleep (characterized by closed eyes, behavioral quiescence, regular and deep breathing) and active sleep (characterized by closed eyes, intermittent ocular movements, isolated facial and body movements, irregular breathing) with short periods of wakefulness
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
