Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Touched Self: Affective Touch and Body Awareness in Health and Disease

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Affective Touch and the Neurophysiology of CT Afferents

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how interpersonal, affective touch shapes our sense of self as embodied beings. In the first section, we highlight the centrality of bodily representations for our psychological sense of self, with special emphasis on the role of internal bodily signals in forming the emotional, core of selfhood. The second section focuses on affective touch as a domain of interoception and addresses its important contribution to healthy body representation and bodily awareness. Specifically, we present recent, accumulating evidence in healthy volunteers pointing to the crucial role of affective touch in the construction and maintenance of fundamental facets of bodily awareness, such as the sense of body ownership. Finally, in a third section, we discuss findings in neurological and psychiatric disorders of body representation and awareness, indicating the importance of affective touch and other affiliative, interpersonal signals for the construction of a coherent, efficient and resilient sense of embodied selfhood. Overall, our chapter draws on perspectives from multiple mind and brain fields in order to highlight how affective touch, a bodily modality by which we can communicate social affiliation and care, has a fundamental role in the constitution of selfhood.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arditi H, Feldman R, Eidelman AI (2006) Effects of human contact and vagal regulation on pain reactivity and visual attention in newborns. Dev Psychobiol 48(7):561–573

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aspell JE, Heydrich L, Marillier G, Lavanchy T, Herbelin B, Blanke O (2013) Turning body and self inside out: visualized heartbeats alter bodily self-consciousness and tactile perception. Psychol Sci 24(12):2445–2453

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Balaban CD, Thayer JF (2001) Neurological bases for balance-anxiety links. J Anxiety Disord 15(1–2):53–79

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Balconi M (2010) Neuropsychology of the sense of agency. From Consciousness to action. Springer, Milan

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett RH, Bolling DZ, Anderson LC, Pelphrey KA, Kaiser MD (2014) fNIRS detects temporal lobe response to affective touch. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 9(4):470–476. doi:10.1093/scan/nst008

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berlucchi G, Aglioti S (1997) The body in the brain: neural bases of corporeal awareness. Trends Neurosci 20(12):560–564

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berlucchi G, Aglioti SM (2010) The body in the brain revisited. Exp Brain Res 200(1):25–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bermudez JL (2005) The phenomenology of bodily awareness. In: Woodruff Smith D, Thomasson AL (eds) Phenomenology and philosophy of mind. Clarendon, Oxford, pp 295–322

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bjornsdotter M, Gordon I, Pelphrey KA, Olausson H, Kaiser MD (2014) Development of brain mechanisms for processing affective touch. Front Behav Neurosci 8:24. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00024

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bjornsdotter M, Loken L, Olausson H, Vallbo A, Wessberg J (2009) Somatotopic organization of gentle touch processing in the posterior insular cortex. J Neurosci 29(29):9314–9320

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blanke O (2012) Multisensory brain mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness. Nat Rev Neurosci 13(8):556–571. doi:10.1038/nrn3292

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blanke O, Landis T, Spinelli L, Seeck M (2004) Out-of-body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin. Brain 127(Pt 2):243–258. doi:10.1093/brain/awh040

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blanke O, Metzinger T (2009) Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood. Trends Cogn Sci 13(1):7–13. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2008.10.003

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blankfield RP, Sulzmann C, Fradley LG, Tapolyai AA, Zyzanski SJ (2001) Therapeutic touch in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. J Am Board Fam Pract 14(5):335–342

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bottini G, Bisiach E, Sterzi R, Vallar G (2002) Feeling touches in someone else’s hand. Neuroreport 13(2):249–252

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Botvinick M, Cohen J (1998) Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see. Nature 391(6669):756. doi:10.1038/35784

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby J (1969) Attachment and loss, vol 1, Attachment. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Braten S, Trevarthen C (2007) Prologue: from infant intersubjectivity and participant movements to simulations and conversations in cultural common sense. In: Braten S (ed) On being moved: from mirror neurons to empathy. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp 21–34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Carmona JE, Holland AK, Harrison DW (2009) Extending the functional cerebral systems theory of emotion to the vestibular modality: a systematic and integrative approach. Psychol Bull 135(2):286–302. doi:10.1037/a0014825

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers G (2008) Types of body representation and the sense of embodiment. Conscious Cogn 17(4):1302–1316

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cascio CJ, Foss-Feig JH, Burnette CP, Heacock JL, Cosby AA (2012) The rubber hand illusion in children with autism spectrum disorders: delayed influence of combined tactile and visual input on proprioception. Autism 16(4):406–419

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cash TF, Deagle EA 3rd (1997) The nature and extent of body-image disturbances in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: a meta-analysis. Int J Eat Disord 22(2):107–125

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coan JA, Schaefer HS, Davidson RJ (2006) Lending a hand: social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychol Sci 17(12):1032–1039. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conway MA (2001) Sensory-perceptual episodic memory and its context: autobiographical memory. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 356(1413):1375–1384. doi:10.1098/rstb.2001.0940

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cornelissen PL, Johns A, Tovee MJ (2013) Body size over-estimation in women with anorexia nervosa is not qualitatively different from female controls. Body Image 10(1):103–111. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.09.003

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cowie D, Makin TR, Bremner AJ (2013) Children’s responses to the rubber-hand illusion reveal dissociable pathways in body representation. Psychol Sci 24(5):762–769

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig AD (2002) How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nat Rev Neurosci 3(8):655–666. doi:10.1038/nrn894

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig AD (2003) Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Curr Opin Neurobiol 13(4):500–505

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig AD (2009) How do you feel—now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nat Rev Neurosci 10(1):59–70. doi:10.1038/nrn2555

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Critchley HD, Wiens S, Rotshtein P, Ohman A, Dolan RJ (2004) Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness. Nat Neurosci 7(2):189–195. doi:10.1038/nn1176

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Critchley M (1974) Misoplegia, or hatred of hemiplegia. Mt Sinai J Med 41(1):82–87

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crucianelli L, Metcalf NK, Fotopoulou AK, Jenkinson PM (2013) Bodily pleasure matters: velocity of touch modulates body ownership during the rubber hand illusion. Front Psychol 4:703

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Damasio AR (1994) Descartes’ error: emotion, reason, and the human brain. Avon, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio AR (1999) The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Harcourt, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio AR (2010) Self comes to mind. Constructing the conscious brain. Heinemann, London

    Google Scholar 

  • de Gelder B, Van den Stock J, Meeren HK, Sinke CB, Kret ME, Tamietto M (2010) Standing up for the body. Recent progress in uncovering the networks involved in the perception of bodies and bodily expressions. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 34(4):513–527. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.10.008

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Vignemont F (2011) Embodiment, ownership and disownership. Conscious Cogn 20(1):82–93. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.09.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J (2009) Empathy, sympathy and the perception of pain. Pain 145(3):365–366

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Jackson PL (2004) The functional architecture of human empathy. Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev 3(2):71–100. doi:10.1177/1534582304267187

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Denison B (2004) Touch the pain away: new research on therapeutic touch and persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. Holist Nurs Pract 18(3):142–151

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dieguez S, Mercier MR, Newby N, Blanke O (2009) Feeling numbness for someone else’s finger. Curr Biol 19(24):R1108–R1109. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.055

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dieter JN, Field T, Hernandez-Reif M, Emory EK, Redzepi M (2003) Stable preterm infants gain more weight and sleep less after five days of massage therapy. J Pediatr Psychol 28(6):403–411

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkerman HC, de Haan EH (2007) Somatosensory processes subserving perception and action. Behav Brain Sci 30(2):189–201; discussion 201–239

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DiMenna L (2006) Considerations for implementation of a neonatal kangaroo care protocol. Neonatal Netw 25(6):405–412

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ditzen B, Neumann ID, Bodenmann G, von Dawans B, Turner RA, Ehlert U, Heinrichs M (2007) Effects of different kinds of couple interaction on cortisol and heart rate responses to stress in women. Psychoneuroendocrinology 32(5):565–574. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2007.03.011

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Domschke K, Stevens S, Pfleiderer B, Gerlach AL (2010) Interoceptive sensitivity in anxiety and anxiety disorders: an overview and integration of neurobiological findings. Clin Psychol Rev 30(1):1–11. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.08.008

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Downing PE, Jiang Y, Shuman M, Kanwisher N (2001) A cortical area selective for visual processing of the human body. Science 293(5539):2470–2473. doi:10.1126/science.1063414

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RI, Shultz S (2007) Evolution in the social brain. Science 317(5843):1344–1347. doi:10.1126/science.1145463

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn BD, Stefanovitch I, Evans D, Oliver C, Hawkins A, Dalgleish T (2010) Can you feel the beat? Interoceptive awareness is an interactive function of anxiety- and depression-specific symptom dimensions. Behav Res Ther 48(11):1133–1138. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.07.006

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Duquette M, Roy M, Lepore F, Peretz I, Rainville P (2007) Cerebral mechanisms involved in the interaction between pain and emotion. Rev Neurol (Paris) 163(2):169–179

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrsson HH (2007) The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science 317(5841):1048. doi:10.1126/science.1142175

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrsson HH, Holmes NP, Passingham RE (2005) Touching a rubber hand: feeling of body ownership is associated with activity in multisensory brain areas. J Neurosci 25(45):10564–10573

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Eshkevari E, Rieger E, Longo MR, Haggard P, Treasure J (2012) Increased plasticity of the bodily self in eating disorders. Psychol Med 42(4):819–828. doi:10.1017/S0033291711002091

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Esposito G, Yoshida S, Ohnishi R, Tsuneoka Y, Rostagno Mdel C, Yokota S et al (2013) Infant calming responses during maternal carrying in humans and mice. Curr Biol 23(9):739–745. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.03.041

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell C, Lee M, Shafran R (2005) Assessment of body size estimation: a review. Eur Eat Disord Rev 13(2):75–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg TE (1997) Anosognosia and confabulation. In: Feinberg TE, Farah MJ (eds) Behavioral neurology and neuropsychology. McGraw Hill, New York, pp 369–390

    Google Scholar 

  • Field T (2001) Massage therapy facilitates weight gain in preterm infants. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 10(2):51–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Filippetti ML, Johnson MH, Lloyd-Fox S, Dragovic D, Farroni T (2013) Body perception in newborns. Curr Biol 23(23):2413–2416. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.10.017

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher P, Fotopoulou A (2014) Abnormalities of agency. In: Haggard P, Eitam B (eds) Human agency: functions and mechanisms. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel A (2013) Body sense. The science and practice of embodied self-awareness. W.W. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fonagy P, Gergely G, Jurist EL, Target M (2004) Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of self. Karnac, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Fotopoulou A (2014) Time to get rid of the ‘Modular’ in neuropsychology: a unified theory of anosognosia as aberrant predictive coding. J Neuropsychol 8(1):1–19. doi:10.1111/jnp.12010

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fourneret P, Jeannerod M (1998) Limited conscious monitoring of motor performance in normal subjects. Neuropsychologia 36(11):1133–1140

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Friederich HC, Kumari V, Uher R, Riga M, Schmidt U, Campbell IC et al (2006) Differential motivational responses to food and pleasurable cues in anorexia and bulimia nervosa: a startle reflex paradigm. Psychol Med 36(9):1327–1335. doi:10.1017/S0033291706008129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frith U, Frith C (2010) The social brain: allowing humans to boldly go where no other species has been. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 365(1537):165–176

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gallace A, Spence C (2010) The science of interpersonal touch: an overview. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 34(2):246–259. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.10.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher S (2000) Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science. Trends Cogn Sci 4(1)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher S (2005) How the body shapes the mind. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gandola M, Invernizzi P, Sedda A, Ferre ER, Sterzi R, Sberna M et al (2012) An anatomical account of somatoparaphrenia. Cortex 48(9):1165–1178. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2011.06.012

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gazzola JM, Aratani MC, Dona F, Macedo C, Fukujima MM, Gananca MM, Gananca FF (2009) Factors relating to depressive symptoms among elderly people with chronic vestibular dysfunction. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 67(2B):416–422

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Gibson SJ, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Bradshaw JL (2008) Mechanisms underlying embodiment, disembodiment and loss of embodiment. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 32(1):143–160

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Godemann F, Linden M, Neu P, Heipp E, Dorr P (2004) A prospective study on the course of anxiety after vestibular neuronitis. J Psychosom Res 56(3):351–354. doi:10.1016/S0022-3999(03)00079-5

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon A, Merenstein JH, D’Amico F, Hudgens D (1998) The effects of therapeutic touch on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. J Fam Pract 47(4):271–277

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon I, Voos AC, Bennett RH, Bolling DZ, Pelphrey KA, Kaiser MD (2013) Brain mechanisms for processing affective touch. Hum Brain Mapp 34(4):914–922. doi:10.1002/hbm.21480

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gray L, Watt L, Blass EM (2000) Skin-to-skin contact is analgesic in healthy newborns. Pediatrics 105(1):e14

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grewen KM, Anderson BJ, Girdler SS, Light KC (2003) Warm partner contact is related to lower cardiovascular reactivity. Behav Med 29(3):123–130. doi:10.1080/08964280309596065

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grunwald M, Ettrich C, Krause W, Assmann B, Dahne A, Weiss T, Gertz HJ (2001) Haptic perception in anorexia nervosa before and after weight gain. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 23(4):520–529. doi:10.1076/jcen.23.4.520.1229

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gu XL, Yu LC (2007) Involvement of opioid receptors in oxytocin-induced antinociception in the nucleus accumbens of rats. J Pain 8(1):85–90. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2006.07.001

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Guardia D, Conversy L, Jardri R, Lafargue G, Thomas P, Dodin V et al (2012) Imagining one’s own and someone else’s body actions: dissociation in anorexia nervosa. PLoS One 7(8):e43241. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0043241

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Guardia D, Lafargue G, Thomas P, Dodin V, Cottencin O, Luyat M (2010) Anticipation of body-scaled action is modified in anorexia nervosa. Neuropsychologia 48(13):3961–3966. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harlow HF (1958) The nature of love. Am Psychol 13:673–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart S, Field T, Hernandez-Reif M, Nearing G, Shaw S, Schanberg S, Kuhn C (2001) Anorexia nervosa symptoms are reduced by massage therapy. Eat Disord 9(4):289–299

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hertenstein MJ, Keltner D, App B, Bulleit BA, Jaskolka AR (2006a) Touch communicates distinct emotions. Emotion 6(3):528–533. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.3.528

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hertenstein MJ, Verkamp JM, Kerestes AM, Holmes RM (2006b) The communicative functions of touch in humans, nonhuman primates, and rats: a review and synthesis of the empirical research. Genet Soc Gen Psychol Monogr 132(1):5–94

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Husserl E (1989) Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenological philosophy and to a phenomenological philosophy, second book (R. Rojcewicz A. Schuwer, Trans.). Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Invernizzi P, Gandola M, Romano D, Zapparoli L, Bottini G, Paulesu E (2013) What is mine? Behavioral and anatomical dissociations between somatoparaphrenia and anosognosia for hemiplegia. Behav Neurol 26(1–2):139–150. doi:10.3233/BEN-2012-110226

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • James W (1884) What is an emotion? Mind 9:188–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James W (1890) Principles of psychology. Dover, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkinson PM, Haggard P, Ferreira NC, Fotopoulou A (2013) Body ownership and attention in the mirror: insights from somatoparaphrenia and the rubber hand illusion. Neuropsychologia 51(8):1453–1462. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.03.029

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkinson PM, Preston C, Ellis SJ (2011) Unawareness after stroke: a review and practical guide to understanding, assessing, and managing anosognosia for hemiplegia. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 33(10):1079–1093. doi:10.1080/13803395.2011.596822

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson KO, Hsiao SS (1992) Neural mechanisms of tactual form and texture perception. Annu Rev Neurosci 15:227–250. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.15.030192.001303

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kammers MP, de Vignemont F, Haggard P (2010) Cooling the thermal grill illusion through self-touch. Curr Biol 20(20):1819–1822. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.038

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karnath HO, Baier B (2010) Right insula for our sense of limb ownership and self-awareness of actions. Brain Struct Funct 214(5-6):411–417. doi:10.1007/s00429-010-0250-4

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karnath HO, Baier B, Nagele T (2005) Awareness of the functioning of one’s own limbs mediated by the insular cortex? J Neurosci 25(31):7134–7138. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1590-05.2005

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kaye W (2008) Neurobiology of anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Physiol Behav 94(1):121–135. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.11.037

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keizer A, Smeets MA, Dijkerman HC, van den Hout M, Klugkist I, van Elburg A, Postma A (2011) Tactile body image disturbance in anorexia nervosa. Psychiatry Res 190(1):115–120. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2011.04.031

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keizer A, Smeets MA, Postma A, van Elburg A, Dijkerman HC (2014) Does the experience of ownership over a rubber hand change body size perception in anorexia nervosa patients? Neuropsychologia 62C:26–37. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.07.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller E, Bzdek VM (1986) Effects of therapeutic touch on tension headache pain. Nurs Res 35(2):101–106

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kerr CE, Wasserman RH, Moore CI (2007) Cortical dynamics as a therapeutic mechanism for touch healing. J Altern Complement Med 13(1):59–66

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kong J, White NS, Kwong KK, Vangel MG, Rosman IS, Gracely RH, Gollub RL (2006) Using fMRI to dissociate sensory encoding from cognitive evaluation of heat pain intensity. Hum Brain Mapp 27(9):715–721. doi:10.1002/hbm.20213

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Korosi A, Shanabrough M, McClelland S, Liu ZW, Borok E, Gao XB et al (2010) Early-life experience reduces excitation to stress-responsive hypothalamic neurons and reprograms the expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone. J Neurosci 30(2):703–713. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4214-09.2010

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Krahe C, Springer A, Weinman JA, Fotopoulou A (2013) The social modulation of pain: others as predictive signals of salience—a systematic review. Front Hum Neurosci 7:386. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00386

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lenggenhager B, Tadi T, Metzinger T, Blanke O (2007) Video ergo sum: manipulating bodily self-consciousness. Science 317(5841):1096–1099. doi:10.1126/science.1143439

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd DM, Gillis V, Lewis E, Farrell MJ, Morrison I (2013) Pleasant touch moderates the subjective but not objective aspects of body perception. Front Behav Neurosci 7:207

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Löken LS, Wessberg J, Morrison I, McGlone F, Olausson H (2009) Coding of pleasant touch by unmyelinated afferents in humans. Nat Neurosci 12(5):547–548

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Longo MR, Schuur F, Kammers MP, Tsakiris M, Haggard P (2008) What is embodiment? A psychometric approach. Cognition 107(3):978–998. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.12.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meltzoff AN, Brooks R (2001) “Like me” as a building block for understanding other minds: bodily acts, attention, and intention. In: Malle BF, Moses LJ, Baldwin DA (eds) Intentions and intentionality: foundations of social cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 171–191

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty M (1962) Phenomenology of perception (Phénomènologie de la perception published 1945 by Gallimard, Paris). Routledge & Kegan Paul, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Moro V, Zampini M, Aglioti SM (2004) Changes in spatial position of hands modify tactile extinction but not disownership of contralesional hand in two right brain-damaged patients. Neurocase 10(6):437–443. doi:10.1080/13554790490894020

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison I, Bjornsdotter M, Olausson H (2011) Vicarious responses to social touch in posterior insular cortex are tuned to pleasant caressing speeds. J Neurosci 31(26):9554–9562. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0397-11.2011

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison I, Loken LS, Olausson H (2010) The skin as a social organ. Exp Brain Res 204(3):305–314. doi:10.1007/s00221-009-2007-y

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moseley GL, Olthof N, Venema A, Don S, Wijers M, Gallace A, Spence C (2008) Psychologically induced cooling of a specific body part caused by the illusory ownership of an artificial counterpart. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(35):13169–13173

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mussgay L, Klinkenberg N, Ruddel H (1999) Heart beat perception in patients with depressive, somatoform, and personality disorders. J Psychophysiol 13:293–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neisser U (1988) Five kinds of self-knowledge. Philos Psychol 1:35–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nico D, Daprati E, Nighoghossian N, Carrier E, Duhamel JR, Sirigu A (2010) The role of the right parietal lobe in anorexia nervosa. Psychol Med 40(9):1531–1539. doi:10.1017/S0033291709991851

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Niedenthal PM (2007) Embodying emotion. Science 316(5827):1002–1005. doi:10.1126/science.1136930

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olausson H, Lamarre Y, Backlund H, Morin C, Wallin BG, Starck G et al (2002) Unmyelinated tactile afferents signal touch and project to insular cortex. Nat Neurosci 5(9):900–904. doi:10.1038/nn896

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olausson HW, Cole J, Vallbo A, McGlone F, Elam M, Kramer HH et al (2008) Unmyelinated tactile afferents have opposite effects on insular and somatosensory cortical processing. Neurosci Lett 436(2):128–132

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Panksepp J (1998) Affective neuroscience: the foundations of human and animal emotions. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Panksepp J, Burgdorf J (2003) “Laughing” rats and the evolutionary antecedents of human joy? Physiol Behav 79(3):533–547

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peelen MV, Downing PE (2005) Selectivity for the human body in the fusiform gyrus. J Neurophysiol 93(1):603–608. doi:10.1152/jn.00513.2004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pelaez-Nogueras M, Field TM, Hossain Z, Pickens J (1996) Depressed mothers’ touching increases infants’ positive affect and attention in still-face interactions. Child Dev 67(4):1780–1792

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pollatos O, Kirsch W, Schandry R (2005) On the relationship between interoceptive awareness, emotional experience, and brain processes. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 25(3):948–962. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.09.019

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pollatos O, Kurz AL, Albrecht J, Schreder T, Kleemann AM, Schopf V et al (2008) Reduced perception of bodily signals in anorexia nervosa. Eat Behav 9(4):381–388. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2008.02.001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pollatos O, Schandry, R (2004) Accuracy of heartbeat perception is reflected in the amplitude of the heartbeat-evoked brain potential. Psychophysiology 41(3):476–482. doi: 10.111/1469-8986.2004.00170.x

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollatos O, Traut-Mattausch E, Schandry R (2009) Differential effects of anxiety and depression on interoceptive accuracy. Depress Anxiety 26(2):167–173. doi:10.1002/da.20504

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prinz W (2012) Open minds: the social making of agency and intentionality. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainville P, Bao QV, Chretien P (2005) Pain-related emotions modulate experimental pain perception and autonomic responses. Pain 118(3):306–318. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2005.08.022

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy V (2008) How infants know minds. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Craighero L (2004) The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci 27:169–192

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rochat P (2009) Others in mind: social origins of self-consciousness. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Romano D, Gandola M, Bottini G, Maravita A (2014) Arousal responses to noxious stimuli in somatoparaphrenia and anosognosia: clues to body awareness. Brain 137(Pt 4):1213–1223. doi:10.1093/brain/awu009

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roy M, Piche M, Chen JI, Peretz I, Rainville P (2009) Cerebral and spinal modulation of pain by emotions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(49):20900–20905. doi:10.1073/pnas.0904706106

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Royet JP, Plailly J, Delon-Martin C, Kareken DA, Segebarth C (2003) fMRI of emotional responses to odors: influence of hedonic valence and judgment, handedness, and gender. Neuroimage 20(2):713–728. doi:10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00388-4

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sander D (2013) Models of Emotion. The affective neuroscience approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer M, Egloff B, Gerlach AL, Witthoft M (2014) Improving heartbeat perception in patients with medically unexplained symptoms reduces symptom distress. Biol Psychol 101:69–76. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.05.012

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer M, Egloff B, Witthoft M (2012) Is interoceptive awareness really altered in somatoform disorders? Testing competing theories with two paradigms of heartbeat perception. J Abnorm Psychol 121(3):719–724. doi:10.1037/a0028509

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schandry R (1981) Heart beat perception and emotional experience. Psychophysiology 18(4):483–488

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schreckenberger M, Siessmeier T, Viertmann A, Landvogt C, Buchholz HG, Rolke R et al (2005) The unpleasantness of tonic pain is encoded by the insular cortex. Neurology 64(7):1175–1183. doi:10.1212/01.WNL.0000156353.17305.52

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schütz-Bosbach S, Musil JJ, Haggard P (2009a) Touchant-touche: the role of self-touch in the representation of body structure. Conscious Cogn 18(1):2–11

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schütz-Bosbach S, Tausche P, Weiss C (2009b) Roughness perception during the rubber hand illusion. Brain Cogn 70(1):136–144

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sebanz N, Bekkering H, Knoblich G (2006) Joint action: bodies and minds moving together. Trends Cogn Sci 10(2):70–76

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sedda A (2011) Body integrity identity disorder: from a psychological to a neurological syndrome. Neuropsychol Rev 21(4):334–336

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Serino A, Haggard P (2010) Touch and the body. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 34(2):224–236

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seth AK (2013) Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self. Trends Cogn Sci 17(11):565–573. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.09.007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seth AK, Suzuki K, Critchley HD (2011) An interoceptive predictive coding model of conscious presence. Front Psychol 2:395. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00395

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sforza A, Bufalari I, Haggard P, Aglioti SM (2010) My face in yours: visuo-tactile facial stimulation influences sense of identity. Soc Neurosci 5(2):148–162. doi:10.1080/17470910903205503

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sharp H, Pickles A, Meaney M, Marshall K, Tibu F, Hill J (2012) Frequency of infant stroking reported by mothers moderates the effect of prenatal depression on infant behavioural and physiological outcomes. PLoS One 7(10):e45446. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045446

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Simeon D, Gross S, Guralnik O, Stein DJ, Schmeidler J, Hollander E (1997) Feeling unreal: 30 cases of DSM-III-R depersonalization disorder. Am J Psychiatry 154(8):1107–1113

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Small DM, Gregory MD, Mak YE, Gitelman D, Mesulam MM, Parrish T (2003) Dissociation of neural representation of intensity and affective valuation in human gustation. Neuron 39(4):701–711

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smeets MA, Smit F, Panhuysen GE, Ingleby JD (1998) Body perception index: benefits, pitfalls, ideas. J Psychosom Res 44(3–4):457–464

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soussignan R, Schaal B, Rigaud D, Royet JP, Jiang T (2011) Hedonic reactivity to visual and olfactory cues: rapid facial electromyographic reactions are altered in anorexia nervosa. Biol Psychol 86(3):265–272. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.12.007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens J, Schmied V, Burns E, Dahlen H (2014) Immediate or early skin-to-skin contact after a Caesarean section: a review of the literature. Matern Child Nutr 10(4):456–473

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens S, Gerlach AL, Cludius B, Silkens A, Craske MG, Hermann C (2011) Heartbeat perception in social anxiety before and during speech anticipation. Behav Res Ther 49(2):138–143. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.11.009

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Simmons AN, Oberndorfer T, Klabunde M, Reinhardt LE, Kaye WH (2013) Altered insula activation during pain anticipation in individuals recovered from anorexia nervosa: evidence of interoceptive dysregulation. Int J Eat Disord 46(1):23–33. doi:10.1002/eat.22045

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Suchan B, Busch M, Schulte D, Gronemeyer D, Herpertz S, Vocks S (2010) Reduction of gray matter density in the extrastriate body area in women with anorexia nervosa. Behav Brain Res 206(1):63–67. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2009.08.035

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan PF (1995) Mortality in anorexia nervosa. Am J Psychiatry 152(7):1073–1074

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki K, Garfinkel SN, Critchley HD, Seth AK (2013) Multisensory integration across exteroceptive and interoceptive domains modulates self-experience in the rubber-hand illusion. Neuropsychologia 51(13):2909–2917. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.08.014

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tajadura-Jimenez A, Longo MR, Coleman R, Tsakiris M (2012) The person in the mirror: using the enfacement illusion to investigate the experiential structure of self-identification. Conscious Cogn 21(4):1725–1738. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2012.10.004

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tchanturia K, Davies H, Harrison A, Fox JR, Treasure J, Schmidt U (2012) Altered social hedonic processing in eating disorders. Int J Eat Disord 45(8):962–969. doi:10.1002/eat.22032

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Trevarthen C (1993) The function of emotions in early infant communication and development. In: Nadel J, Camaioni L (eds) New perspectives in early communicative development. Routledge, London, pp 48–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiris M (2010) My body in the brain: a neurocognitive model of body-ownership. Neuropsychologia 48(3):703–712. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.09.034

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiris M, Hesse MD, Boy C, Haggard P, Fink GR (2007) Neural signatures of body ownership: a sensory network for bodily self-consciousness. Cereb Cortex 17(10):2235–2244. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl131

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiris M, Tajadura-Jimenez A, Costantini M (2011) Just a heartbeat away from one’s body: interoceptive sensitivity predicts malleability of body-representations. Proc Biol Sci 278(1717):2470–2476. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.2547

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Uher R, Murphy T, Friederich HC, Dalgleish T, Brammer MJ, Giampietro V et al (2005) Functional neuroanatomy of body shape perception in healthy and eating-disordered women. Biol Psychiatry 58(12):990–997. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.06.001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Urgesi C, Fornasari L, Canalaz F, Perini L, Cremaschi S, Faleschini L et al (2014) Impaired configural body processing in anorexia nervosa: evidence from the body inversion effect. Br J Psychol 105(4):486–508. doi:10.1111/bjop.12057

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Valentini M, Kischka U, Halligan PW (2008) Residual haptic sensation following stroke using ipsilateral stimulation. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 79(3):266–270

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vallar G, Ronchi R (2009) Somatoparaphrenia: a body delusion. A review of the neuropsychological literature. Exp Brain Res 192(3):533–551

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vallbo AB, Olausson H, Wessberg J (1999) Unmyelinated afferents constitute a second system coding tactile stimuli of the human hairy skin. J Neurophysiol 81(6):2753–2763

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vallee M, MacCari S, Dellu F, Simon H, Le Moal M, Mayo W (1999) Long-term effects of prenatal stress and postnatal handling on age-related glucocorticoid secretion and cognitive performance: a longitudinal study in the rat. Eur J Neurosci 11(8):2906–2916

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Stock J, Vandenbulcke M, Sinke CB, de Gelder B (2014) Affective scenes influence fear perception of individual body expressions. Hum Brain Mapp 35(2):492–502. doi:10.1002/hbm.22195

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Stralen HE, van Zandvoort MJ, Dijkerman HC (2011) The role of self-touch in somatosensory and body representation disorders after stroke. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 366(1581):3142–3152. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0163

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • van Stralen HE, van Zandvoort MJ, Hoppenbrouwers SS, Vissers LM, Kappelle LJ, Dijkerman HC (2014) Affective touch modulates the rubber hand illusion. Cognition 131(1):147–158

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner A, Aizenstein H, Mazurkewicz L, Fudge J, Frank GK, Putnam K et al (2008) Altered insula response to taste stimuli in individuals recovered from restricting-type anorexia nervosa. Neuropsychopharmacology 33(3):513–523. doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1301443

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner A, Aizenstein H, Venkatraman VK, Fudge J, May JC, Mazurkewicz L et al (2007) Altered reward processing in women recovered from anorexia nervosa. Am J Psychiatry 164(12):1842–1849. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07040575

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Warnock FF, Castral TC, Brant R, Sekilian M, Leite AM, Owens Sde L, Scochi CG (2010) Brief report: maternal kangaroo care for neonatal pain relief: a systematic narrative review. J Pediatr Psychol 35(9):975–984

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weiskrantz L, Zhang D (1987) Residual tactile sensitivity with self-directed stimulation in hemianaesthesia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 50:632–634

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss WJ, Wilson PW, Morrison D (2004) Maternal tactile stimulation and the neurodevelopment of low birth weight infants. Infancy 5:85–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White RC, Aimola Davies AM, Halleen TJ, Davies M (2010) Tactile expectations and the perception of self-touch: an investigation using the rubber hand paradigm. Conscious Cogn 19(2):505–519

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White RC, Aimola Davies AM, Kischka U, Davies M (2011) Touch and feel? Using the rubber hand paradigm to investigate self-touch enhancement in right-hemisphere stroke patients. Neuropsychologia 48(1):26–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winnicott DW (1971) Mirror role of mother and family in child development. In: Winnicott DW (ed) Playing and reality. Routledge Classics, London, pp 149–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Woods DL, Craven RF, Whitney J (2005) The effect of therapeutic touch on behavioral symptoms of persons with dementia. Altern Ther Health Med 11(1):66–74

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Woods DL, Dimond M (2002) The effect of therapeutic touch on agitated behavior and cortisol in persons with Alzheimer’s disease. Biol Res Nurs 4(2):104–114

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zeller D, Gross C, Bartsch A, Johansen-Berg H, Classen J (2011) Ventral premotor cortex may be required for dynamic changes in the feeling of limb ownership: a lesion study. J Neurosci 31(13):4852–4857. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5154-10.2011

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The preparation of this chapter was supported by a European Research Council Starting Investigator Award’ [ERC-2012-STG GA313755 to A.F.].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Leopoldstr. 13, D-80802, Munich, Germany

    Antje Gentsch Ph.D.

  2. Department of Psychology, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK

    Laura Crucianelli M.Sc. & Paul Jenkinson Ph.D.

  3. Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7HB, UK

    Aikaterini Fotopoulou Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Antje Gentsch Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Laura Crucianelli M.Sc.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paul Jenkinson Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Aikaterini Fotopoulou Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antje Gentsch Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Linköping University, Göteborg, Sweden

    Håkan Olausson

  2. Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

    Johan Wessberg

  3. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    India Morrison

  4. Research Centre for Brain & Behaviour, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Francis McGlone

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gentsch, A., Crucianelli, L., Jenkinson, P., Fotopoulou, A. (2016). The Touched Self: Affective Touch and Body Awareness in Health and Disease. In: Olausson, H., Wessberg, J., Morrison, I., McGlone, F. (eds) Affective Touch and the Neurophysiology of CT Afferents. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6418-5_21

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation