Maternal versus stranger’s touch at 10 months: An fNIRS study
Camila Fragoso Ribeiro, Isabella Germinhasi Francischelli, Lívia Branco Campos, Lilia Sofia Ferreira de Sousa Cardoso, Borja Blanco, Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Rogério de Oliveira, Sergio Luiz Novi Junior, Rickson Coelho Mesquita, Ana Alexandra Caldas Osório · FENS Forum 2024
Social touch is crucial for optimal human development, given its contributions to emotional and behavioral regulation. Research has identified a set of tactile afferents – C-Tactile (CT) fibers – that fire specifically in response to receiving gentle touch on the skin. These fibers have been shown to project not only to somatosensory areas of the brain but also to social regions. There is also evidence that the processing of social touch is highly influenced by contextual factors, such as the identity of the person delivering the touch. This study aimed to compare the neural activation pattern