ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2022
Gentle stroking elicits somatosensory ERP that differentiates between hairy and glabrous skin.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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9 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- CT-Optimal Stimulation Modulates Somatosensory Processing.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Merkel cell stimulation in fear and sensory signaling.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Somatosensory modulation of affective pictures' processing in adults with cerebral palsy and healthy controls: a case-control study.BMC neurology · 2025Article
- The Impact of Relaxation Massage Prior to Bedtime on Sleep Quality and Quantity in People with Symptoms of Chronic Insomnia: A Home-Based Sleep Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Neurophysiological evidence of motor contribution to vicarious affective touch.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- To touch or to be touched? comparing appraisal of vicarious execution and reception of interpersonal touch.PloS one · 2024Article
- Article
- Atypical Response to Affective Touch in Children with Autism: Multi-Parametric Exploration of the Autonomic System.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Here we asked whether, similar to visual and auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), somatosensory ERPs reflect affect. Participants were stroked on hairy or glabrous skin at five stroking velocities (0.5, 1, 3, 10 and 20 cm/s). For stroking of hairy skin, pleasantness ratings related to velocity in an inverted u-shaped manner. ERPs showed a negativity at 400 ms following touch onset over somatosensory cortex contra-lateral to the stimulation site. This negativity, referred to as sN400, was larger for intermediate than for faster and slower velocities and positively predicted pleasantness ratings. For stroking of glabrous skin, pleasantness showed again an inverted u-shaped relation with velocity and, additionally, increased linearly with faster stroking. The sN400 revealed no quadratic effect and instead was larger for faster velocities. Its amplitude failed to significantly predict pleasantness. In sum, as was reported for other senses, a touch's affective value modulates the somatosensory ERP. Notably, however, this ERP and associated subjective pleasantness dissociate between hairy and glabrous skin underscoring functional differences between the skin with which we typically receive touch and the skin with which we typically reach out to touch.
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