ArticleNeuroscience2021
Pleasant Deep Pressure: Expanding the Social Touch Hypothesis.
Article in Neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of weighted blankets on sleep quality among adults with insomnia: a pilot randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Chronic pain patients low in social connectedness report higher pain and need deeper pressure for pain relief.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Widespread Pressure Delivered by a Weighted Blanket Reduces Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The journal of pain · 2022Trial
- Modulation of pain by affective touch: effects of childhood trauma, depression, chronic pain, and spinal segment.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Distinct effects of fibromyalgia pain, depression and anxiety on perception of affective touch and pain.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- A cascading effects model of early sensory development in autism.Psychological review · 2026Review
- MASSAG model: Towards an integrative neuroscience framework linking emotional trauma, pain, and mechanisms of force-based manipulations.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Through Massage to the Brain-Neuronal and Neuroplastic Mechanisms of Massage Based on Various Neuroimaging Techniques (EEG, fMRI, and fNIRS).Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Neurophysiological mechanisms of embodied empathy in martial arts.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- [Pain modulating systems and manual medicine].Orthopadie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- A GI-Interoceptive Threat Theory of Restrictive Eating: Insights From Active Inference and Chronic Pain.Brain and behavior · 2025Review
- Merkel cell stimulation in fear and sensory signaling.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Identification of Brain Activation Areas in Response to Active Tactile Stimulation by Gripping a Stress Ball.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- A review and empirical findings of fasciae and muscle interactions in low back pain.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Correction.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Article
- Interim Analysis of a Prospective Polysomnographic Study of Weighted Blankets in Patients with Psychophysiological Insomnia.Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- A Systematic Review of the Efficacy of Compression Wraps as an Anxiolytic in Domesticated Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Corrugator Muscle Activity Associated with Pressure Pain in Adults with Neck/Shoulder Pain.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- The effect of weighted blankets on sleep and related disorders: a brief review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Neuroscientific research on pleasant touch has focused on the C-tactile pathway for gentle stroking and has successfully explained how these sensory fibers transmit information about affective social touch to the brain and induce sensations of pleasantness. The C-tactile social/affective touch hypothesis even proposes that C-tactile fibers form a privileged pathway underlying social touch. However, deep pressure is a type of touch commonly considered pleasant and calming, occurring in hugs, cuddling, and massage. In this paper we introduce a paradigm for studying pleasant deep pressure and propose that it constitutes another important form of social touch. We describe development of the oscillating compression sleeve (OCS) as one approach to administering deep pressure and demonstrate that this touch is perceived as pleasant and calming. Further, we show that deep pressure can be imaged with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using the air-pressure-driven OCS and that deep pressure activates brain regions highly similar to those that respond to C-tactile stroking, as well as regions not activated by stroking. We propose that deep pressure constitutes another social touch pathway of evolutionary importance signaling the close proximity of conspecifics.
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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.