How Touch Can
Trigger Our Emotions and
Perhaps Lead
Us to be More Adept Socially.
Benefits of
Touch
While touch always involves awareness, it also
sometimes involves emotion. Now, scientists describe a system of slowly
conducting nerves in the skin that respond to gentle touch. Investigators are
beginning to characterize these nerves and to describe the fundamental role
they play in our lives as a social species. Professor McGlone believes that
possessing an emotional touch system in the skin is as important to well-being
and survival as having a system of nerves that protect us from harm. The work
also suggests that this soft touch wiring may go awry in disorders such as
autism. (By the way if you have not seen the movie about Temple Grandin a
fascinating woman with Autism who has revolutionized the way we think about
animals in captivity like cows, find it and watch it.)
Here is the research study.
May
21, 2014
Cell Press
The nerves
that respond to gentle touch, called c-tactile afferents (CTs), are similar to
those that detect pain, but they serve an opposite function: they relay events
that are neither threatening nor tissue-damaging but are instead rewarding and
pleasant.
Credit: ©
Piotr Marcinski / Fotolia
While touch
always involves awareness, it also sometimes involves emotion. For example,
picking up a spoon triggers no real emotion, while feeling a gentle caress
often does. Now, scientists in the Cell Press journal Neuron describe
a system of slowly conducting nerves in the skin that respond to such gentle
touch. Using a range of scientific techniques, investigators are beginning to
characterize these nerves and to describe the fundamental role they play in our
lives as a social species -- from a nurturing touch to an infant to a
reassuring pat on the back. Their work also suggests that this soft touch
wiring may go awry in disorders such as autism.
The nerves that respond to gentle
touch, called
c-tactile afferents (CTs), are similar to those that detect pain, but they
serve an opposite function: they relay events that are neither threatening nor tissue-damaging but are
instead rewarding and pleasant.
"The
evolutionary significance of such a system for a social species is yet to be
fully determined," says first author Francis McGlone, PhD, of Liverpool
John Moores University in England. "But recent research is finding that
people on the autistic spectrum do not process emotional touch normally,
leading us to hypothesize that a failure of the CT system during neurodevelopment may impact adversely
on the functioning of the social brain and the sense of self."
For
some individuals with autism, the light touch of certain fabrics in clothing
can cause distress. Temple
Grandin, an activist and assistant professor of animal sciences at Colorado
State University who has written extensively on her experiences as an
individual with autism, has remarked that her lack of empathy in social
situations may be partially due to a lack of "comforting tactual
input." (By the way if you have not seen the movie about Temple
Grandin find it and watch it). Professor McGlone also notes that deficits in
nurturing touch during early life could have negative effects on a range of
behaviors and psychological states later in life.
Further
research on CTs may help investigators develop therapies for autistic patients
and individuals who lacked adequate nurturing touch as children. Also, a better
understanding of how nerves that relay rewarding sensations interact with those
that signal pain could provide insights into new treatments for certain types
of pain.
Professor McGlone believes that
possessing an emotional touch system in the skin is as important to well-being
and survival as having a system of nerves that protect us from harm. "In a
world where human touch is becoming more and more of a rarity with the
ubiquitous increase in social media leading to non-touch-based communication,
and the decreasing opportunity for infants to experience enough nurturing touch
from a carer or parent due to the economic pressures of modern living, it is
becoming more important to recognize just how vital emotional touch is to all
humankind."
Story
Source:
The
above story is based on materials provided
by Cell Press. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
1. Francis
McGlone, Johan Wessberg, Håkan Olausson. Discriminative and Affective
Touch: Sensing and Feeling. Neuron, 2014; 82 (4): 737 DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.001
