Abstract
In order to advance the understanding of affective touch perceptions, and in particular to inform the design of physical human-robot interactions, an online video study was conducted in which observed stroking touches were assessed on perceived pleasantness. Touches were applied at different velocities and either with a human hand, a robot hand, a mannequin hand, or a plastic tube. In line with earlier research, it was found that stroking touches with a velocity of ca. 3 cm/s were rated as most pleasant. Moreover, the subjective pleasantness scores suggest that the stimulus type interacts with the stroking velocity. The possible roles that social agency, expectations, and anthropomorphism may play in perceptions of pleasantness are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Aldebaran Robotics (2015). http://www.aldebaran.com
CrowdFlower (2015). http://www.crowdflower.com
Ackerley, R., Backlund Wasling, H., Liljencrantz, J., Olausson, H., Johnson, R.D., Wessberg, J.: Human C-tactile afferents are tuned to the temperature of a skin-stroking caress. J. Neurosci. 34(8), 2879–2883 (2014)
Banissy, M.J., Kadosh, R.C., Maus, G.W., Walsh, V., Ward, J.: Prevalence, characteristics and a neurocognitive model of mirror-touch synaesthesia. Exp. Brain Res. 198(2–3), 261–272 (2009)
Blakemore, S.J., Bristow, D., Bird, G., Frith, C., Ward, J.: Somatosensory activations during the observation of touch and a case of vision-touch synaesthesia. Brain 128(7), 1571–1583 (2005)
Ebisch, S.J.H., Ferri, F., Salone, A., Perrucci, M.G., D’Amico, L., Ferro, F.M., Romani, G.L., Gallese, V.: Differential involvement of somatosensory and interoceptive cortices during the observation of affective touch. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 23(7), 1808–1822 (2011)
van Erp, J.B.F., Toet, A.: Social touch in human-computer interaction. Front. Digit. Humanit. 2(2), 1–14 (2015)
Essick, G.K., James, A., McGlone, F.P.: Psychophysical assessment of the affective components of non-painful touch. Neuroreport 10(10), 2083–2087 (1999)
Essick, G.K., McGlone, F., Dancer, C., Fabricant, D., Ragin, Y., Phillips, N., Jones, T., Guest, S.: Quantitative assessment of pleasant touch. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 34(2), 192–203 (2010)
Francis, S., Rolls, E.T., Bowtell, R., McGlone, F., O’Doherty, J., Browning, A., Clare, S., Smith, E.: The representation of pleasant touch in the brain and its relationship with taste and olfactory areas. Neuroreport 10(3), 453–459 (1999)
Funke, F., Reips, U.D.: Why semantic differentials in web-based research should be made from visual analogue scales and not from 5-point scales. field methods 24(3), 310–327 (2012)
Gazzola, V., Spezio, M.L., Etzel, J.A., Castelli, F., Adolphs, R., Keysers, C.: Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 109(25), E1657–E1666 (2012)
Johnson, K.O., Yoshioka, T., Vega-Bermudez, F.: Tactile functions of mechanoreceptive afferents innervating the hand. J. Clin. Neurophysiol. 17(6), 539–558 (2000)
Keysers, C., Gazzola, V.: Expanding the mirror: vicarious activity for actions, emotions, and sensations. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 19(6), 666–671 (2009)
Kress, I.U., Minati, L., Ferraro, S., Critchley, H.D.: Direct skin-to-skin vs. indirect touch modulates neural responses to stroking vs. tapping. Neuroreport 22(13), 646–651 (2011)
Löken, L.S., Evert, M., Wessberg, J.: Pleasantness of touch in human glabrous and hairy skin: order effects on affective ratings. Brain Res. 1417, 9–15 (2011)
Löken, L.S., Wessberg, J., Morrison, I., McGlone, F., Olausson, H.: Coding of pleasant touch by unmyelinated afferents in humans. Nat. Neurosci. 12(5), 547–548 (2009)
Lucas, M.V., Anderson, L.C., Bolling, D.Z., Pelphrey, K.A., Kaiser, M.D.: Dissociating the neural correlates of experiencing and imagining affective touch. Cereb. Cortex 25(9), 2623–2630 (2015)
McCabe, C., Rolls, E.T., Bilderbeck, A., McGlone, F.: Cognitive influences on the affective representation of touch and the sight of touch in the human brain. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 3, 97–108 (2008)
Mcglone, F., Olausson, H., Boyle, J.A., Jones-Gotman, M., Dancer, C., Guest, S., Essick, G.: Touching and feeling: Differences in pleasant touch processing between glabrous and hairy skin in humans. Eur. J. Neurosci. 35(11), 1782–1788 (2012)
Montagu, A.: Touching: The human significance of the skin. Columbia University Press, New York (1971)
Mori, M., MacDorman, K.F., Kageki, N.: The uncanny valley. IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 19(2), 98–100 (2012)
Morrison, I., Björnsdotter, M., Olausson, H.: Vicarious responses to social touch in posterior insular cortex are tuned to pleasant caressing speeds. J. Neurosci. 31(26), 9554–9562 (2011)
Morrison, I., Löken, L.S., Olausson, H.: The skin as a social organ. Exp. Brain Res. 204(3), 305–314 (2010)
Nomura, T., Kanda, T., Suzuki, T., Kato, K.: Prediction of human behavior in human-robot interaction using psychological scales for anxiety and negative attitudes toward robots. IEEE Trans. Robot. 24(2), 442–451 (2008)
Olausson, H., Lamarre, Y., Backlund, H., Morin, C., Wallin, B.G., Starck, G., Ekholm, S., Strigo, I., Worsley, K., Vallbo, A.B., Bushnell, M.C.: Unmyelinated tactile afferents signal touch and project to insular cortex. Nat. Neurosci. 5(9), 900–904 (2002)
Olausson, H.W., Cole, J., Vallbo, Å., McGlone, F., Elam, M., Krämer, H.H., Rylander, K., Wessberg, J., Bushnell, M.C.: Unmyelinated tactile afferents have opposite effects on insular and somatosensory cortical processing. Neurosci. Lett. 436(2), 128–132 (2008)
Acknowledgments
This publication was supported by the Dutch national program COMMIT.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Willemse, C.J.A.M., Huisman, G., Jung, M.M., van Erp, J.B.F., Heylen, D.K.J. (2016). Observing Touch from Video: The Influence of Social Cues on Pleasantness Perceptions. In: Bello, F., Kajimoto, H., Visell, Y. (eds) Haptics: Perception, Devices, Control, and Applications. EuroHaptics 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9775. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42324-1_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42324-1_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42323-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42324-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)