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Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism

Touch represents one of our most important senses throughout life and particularly in the context of our social and emotional experiences. In this review, we draw on research on touch processing from both animal models and humans. Firstly, we briefly describe the cutaneous touch receptors and neural...

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Autores principales: Li, Qin, Zhao, Weihua, Kendrick, Keith M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9728590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36506943
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.967791
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author Li, Qin
Zhao, Weihua
Kendrick, Keith M.
author_facet Li, Qin
Zhao, Weihua
Kendrick, Keith M.
author_sort Li, Qin
collection PubMed
description Touch represents one of our most important senses throughout life and particularly in the context of our social and emotional experiences. In this review, we draw on research on touch processing from both animal models and humans. Firstly, we briefly describe the cutaneous touch receptors and neural processing of both affective and discriminative touch. We then outline how our sense of touch develops and summarize increasing evidence demonstrating how essential early tactile stimulation is for the development of brain and behavior, with a particular focus on effects of tactile stimulation in infant animals and pediatric massage and Kangaroo care in human infants. Next, the potential mechanisms whereby early tactile stimulation influences both brain and behavioral development are discussed, focusing on its ability to promote neural plasticity changes and brain interhemispheric communication, development of social behavior and bonding, and reward sensitivity through modulation of growth factor, oxytocin, and opioid signaling. Finally, we consider the implications of evidence for atypical responses to touch in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and discuss existing evidence and future priorities for establishing potential beneficial effects of interventions using massage or pharmacological treatments targeting oxytocin or other neurochemical systems.
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spelling pubmed-97285902022-12-08 Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism Li, Qin Zhao, Weihua Kendrick, Keith M. Front Psychol Psychology Touch represents one of our most important senses throughout life and particularly in the context of our social and emotional experiences. In this review, we draw on research on touch processing from both animal models and humans. Firstly, we briefly describe the cutaneous touch receptors and neural processing of both affective and discriminative touch. We then outline how our sense of touch develops and summarize increasing evidence demonstrating how essential early tactile stimulation is for the development of brain and behavior, with a particular focus on effects of tactile stimulation in infant animals and pediatric massage and Kangaroo care in human infants. Next, the potential mechanisms whereby early tactile stimulation influences both brain and behavioral development are discussed, focusing on its ability to promote neural plasticity changes and brain interhemispheric communication, development of social behavior and bonding, and reward sensitivity through modulation of growth factor, oxytocin, and opioid signaling. Finally, we consider the implications of evidence for atypical responses to touch in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and discuss existing evidence and future priorities for establishing potential beneficial effects of interventions using massage or pharmacological treatments targeting oxytocin or other neurochemical systems. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9728590/ /pubmed/36506943 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.967791 Text en Copyright © 2022 Li, Zhao and Kendrick. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Li, Qin
Zhao, Weihua
Kendrick, Keith M.
Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
title Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
title_full Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
title_fullStr Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
title_full_unstemmed Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
title_short Affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
title_sort affective touch in the context of development, oxytocin signaling, and autism
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9728590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36506943
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.967791
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