ReviewHormones and behavior2023
Neural mechanisms of comforting: Prosocial touch and stress buffering.
Review in Hormones and behavior, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 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.
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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hypothalamic-amygdala gating of caregiving-like prosocial behavior in mice.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Maternal Social Support Reshapes the Offspring Brain Transcriptome to Buffer Prenatal Stress in Mice.Research square · 2026Article
- GABA signaling in NG2 glia mediates empathy-like behavior under observational social defeat.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Experience-dependent modulation of prosocial touch in mice.iScience · 2026Article
- Increase in Comforting Behavior (Allogrooming) During Social Interaction in Male Mice Deficient for theBrain sciences · 2026Article
- Affiliative and agonistic interactions distinguish sex-biased social groups of greater spear-nosed bats, Phyllostomus hastatus.PloS one · 2026Article
- Prosocial Helping Behavior: Conceptual Issues and Neural Mechanisms.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- GABA receptor antagonism elicits feeding in the septohypothalamic nucleus.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Prairie voles seek social contact with peer companions during immune challenge.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- Early life adversity reduces affiliative behavior with a stressed cagemate and leads to sex-specific alterations in corticosterone responses in adult mice.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- Article
- Virtually simulated interpersonal touch negatively affects perceived closeness and social affiliation to an avatar partner.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Comforting is a crucial form of prosocial behavior that is important for maintaining social unity and improving the physical and emotional well-being of social species. It is often expressed through affiliative social touch toward someone in distress, providing relief for their distressed state. In the face of increasing global distress, these actions are paramount to the continued improvement of individual welfare and the collective good. Understanding the neural mechanisms responsible for promoting actions focused on benefitting others is particularly important and timely. Here, we review prosocial comforting behavior, emphasizing synthesizing recent studies carried out using rodent models. We discuss its underlying behavioral expression and motivations, and then explore both the neurobiology of prosocial comforting in a helper animal and the neurobiology of stress relief following social touch in a recipient as part of a feedback loop interaction.
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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.