ArticleDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience2019
Gentle touch perception: From early childhood to adolescence.
Article in Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT03546712 (Standard References Norms for Tactile Localization Acuity in Upper Limb Among the Asymptomatic Middle School Children), which is not on this map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Standard References Norms for Tactile Localization Acuity in Upper Limb Among the Asymptomatic Middle School Children: A Normative Research
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Surrogate bias: Behavioral and physiological effects of seeing ingroup and outgroup virtual agents touching one's embodied avatar.Computers in human behavior reports · 2026Article
- Touch, temperature, and relief: a multilevel integrative model of hedonic regulation in massage and thermal therapies.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Can you feel it? Altered affective touch perception in a transdiagnostic sample of female adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Touching Emotions: How Touch Shapes Facial Emotional Processing Among Adolescents and Young Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Three-Dimensional Posture Analysis-Based Modifications After Manual Therapy: A Preliminary Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Gaze Orienting in the Social World: An Exploration of the Role Played by Caregiving Vocal and Tactile Behaviors in Infants with Visual Impairment and in Sighted Controls.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- The social roots of self development: from a bodily to an intellectual interpersonal dialogue.Psychological research · 2023Review
- Horses' Tactile Reactivity Differs According to the Type of Work: The Example of Equine-Assisted Intervention.Veterinary sciences · 2023Article
- Digitally embodied lifespan neurocognitive development and Tactile Internet: Transdisciplinary challenges and opportunities.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
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- Atypical Response to Affective Touch in Children with Autism: Multi-Parametric Exploration of the Autonomic System.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Vicarious ratings of self vs. other-directed social touch in women with and recovered from Anorexia Nervosa.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Changes in Touch Avoidance, Stress, and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Maternal sensitivity and infant neural response to touch: an fNIRS study.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021Article
- Vicarious ratings of social touch the effect of age and autistic traits.Scientific reports · 2021Observational
- Children's vicarious ratings of social touch are tuned to the velocity but not the location of a caress.PloS one · 2021Article
- Childhood Adversity and Affective Touch Perception: A Comparison of United Kingdom Care Leavers and Non-care Leavers.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- The Role of Affectionate Caregiver Touch in Early Neurodevelopment and Parent-Infant Interactional Synchrony.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Review
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Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedErratum.2020
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Affective touch plays an important role in children's social interaction and is involved in shaping the development of the social brain. The positive affective component of touch is thought to be conveyed via a group of unmyelinated, low-threshold mechanoreceptive afferents, known as C-tactile fibers that are optimally activated by gentle, slow, stroking touch. Touch targeting these C-tactile fibers has been shown to decrease the heart rate in infants. The current study investigated the relationship between age and psychophysical ratings in response to affective touch. A total of n=43 participants (early childhood: aged 5-8 years, 9 girls, 12 boys; late childhood: aged 9-12 years, 12 girls, 10 boys) were presented with C-tactile optimal and sub-optimal stroking velocities and rated touch pleasantness on an affective pictorial scale. For both age groups, we found that children preferred C-tactile-targeted stimulation. A comparison with previously published data showed that the children's preference for C-tactile-targeted stimulation was similar to those obtained in adolescents and adults. We speculate that the effect of C-tactile-targeted touch, which is linked with pleasantness, shapes the children's preference for C-tactile over non-C-tactile-targeted stimulation, and that C-tactile afferent stimulation is important for social development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.