The role of touch in regulating inter-partner physiological coupling during empathy for pain

Pavel Goldstein,Simone G Shamay-Tsoory,Irit Weissman-Fogel

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03627-7

Abstract

The human ability to synchronize with other individuals is critical for the development of social behavior. Recent research has shown that physiological inter-personal synchronization may underlie behavioral synchrony. Nevertheless, the factors that modulate physiological coupling are still largely unknown. Here we suggest that social touch and empathy for pain may enhance interpersonal physiological coupling. Twenty-two romantic couples were assigned the roles of target (pain receiver) and observer (pain observer) under pain/no-pain and touch/no-touch conditions, and their ECG and respiration rates were recorded. The results indicate that the partner touch increased interpersonal respiration coupling under both pain and no-pain conditions and increased heart rate coupling under pain conditions. In addition, physiological coupling was diminished by pain in the absence of the partner’s touch. Critically, we found that high partner’s empathy and high levels of analgesia enhanced coupling during the partner’s touch. Collectively, the evidence indicates that social touch increases interpersonal physiological coupling during pain. Furthermore, the effects of touch on cardio-respiratory inter-partner coupling may contribute to the analgesic effects of touch via the autonomic nervous system.

Highlights

The human capacity for generating events in synchrony[1] with other individuals has important evolutional significance
These studies indicate that social synchrony plays a major role in affiliative behaviors and in the development of social behavior
Empathy for pain is associated with activity in pain neural networks[22, 23], along with physiological responses such as increased skin conductance[24] and increased heart rate[17, 25]

Summary

Introduction

The human capacity for generating events in synchrony[1] with other individuals has important evolutional significance. An increasing number of studies have explored the physiological mechanisms that underlie social synchrony These studies have shown that group synchrony is accompanied by cardiac rhythms that are synchronized between active participants and bystanders during collective rituals[17] and people collectively watching emotional movies[18]. We hypothesized that empathy for pain would increase synchrony between the physiological responses of the target and those of the observer. Another condition that may promote synchrony is touch. Interpersonal touch increases the coupling of electrodermal activity and pulse rate variability[35] and modulates blood pressure reactivity to stress[36] as well as reactivity to distress[37]. Our second hypothesis was that interpersonal touch would increase interactional physiological coupling

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Conclusion