ArticleDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience2019
Neural correlates of gentle skin stroking in early infancy.
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. Cited by 44 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 135 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of affective touch in mental illness: a systematic review of CT fiber dysregulation in psychological disorders and the therapeutic potential of CT fiber stimulation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Massage and touch-based therapy : Clinical evidence, neurobiology and applications in older patients with psychiatric symptoms.Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2021Pooled it
- Ketamine reduces the neural distinction between self- and other-produced affective touch: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Stochastic vibration and early weight growth in opioid-exposed newborns: a randomized trial.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- Nonpharmacological Pain Management for Premature Neonates in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis.Health science reports · 2026Review
- A cascading effects model of early sensory development in autism.Psychological review · 2026Review
- Beyond Adversity: Definitions, Retrospective Assessment, and Experimental Manipulation of Positive Early-Life Experiences.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Development of interoception: the critical role of maternal affective touch in early attachment.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Impact of touch interventions on brain activity in moderately preterm infants: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Touch as emotion regulation.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Research Progress on Neural Processing of Hand and Forearm Tactile Sensation: A Review Based on fMRI Research.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Review
- Affective Touch in Preterm Infant Development: Neurobiological Mechanisms and Implications for Child-Caregiver Attachment and Neonatal Care.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Neurophysiological evidence of motor contribution to vicarious affective touch.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Helpless infants are learning a foundation model.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2024Review
- 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
- Activation of glutamatergic neurons in the somatosensory cortex promotes remyelination in ischemic vascular dementia.Fundamental research · 2024Article
- Cortical Response Variation with Social and Non-Social Affective Touch Processing in the Glabrous and Hairy Skin of the Leg: A Pilot fMRI Study.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Therapeutic touch and therapeutic alliance in pediatric care and neonatology: An active inference framework.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedErratum.2020
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Physical expressions of affection play a foundational role in early brain development, but the neural correlates of affective touch processing in infancy remain unclear. We examined brain responses to gentle skin stroking, a type of tactile stimulus associated with affectionate touch, in young infants. Thirteen term-born infants aged 11-36days, recruited through the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, were included in the study. Soft brush strokes, which activate brain regions linked to somatosensory as well as socio-affective processing in children and adults, were applied to the skin of the right leg during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We examined infant brain responses in two regions-of-interest (ROIs) known to process gentle skin stroking - the postcentral gyrus and posterior insular cortex - and found significant responses in both ROIs. These results suggest that the neonate brain is responsive to gentle skin stroking within the first weeks of age, and that regions linked to primary somatosensory as well as socio-affective processing are activated. Our findings support the notion that social touch may play an important role in early life sensory processing. Future research will elucidate the significance of these findings for human brain development.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.