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"Touch Perception."
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Touch : the science of hand, heart, and mind
\"The New York Times bestselling author examines how our sense of touch and emotion are interconnected Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Compass of Pleasure, David J. Linden presents an engaging and fascinating examination of how the interface between our sense of touch and our emotional responses affects our social interactions as well as our general health and development. Accessible in its wit and clarity, Touch explores scientific advances in the understanding of touch that help explain our sense of self and our experience of the world. From skin to nerves to brain, the organization of the body's touch circuits powerfully influences our lives-affecting everything from consumer choice to sexual intercourse, tool use to the origins of language, chronic pain to healing. Interpersonal touch is crucial to social bonding and individual development. Linden lucidly explains how sensory and emotional context work together to distinguish between perceptions of what feels good and what feels bad. Linking biology and behavioral science, Linden offers an entertaining and enlightening answer to how we feel in every sense of the word\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Ketamine reduces the neural distinction between self- and other-produced affective touch: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study
A coherent sense of self is crucial for social functioning and mental health. The N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist ketamine induces short-term dissociative experiences and has therefore been used to model an altered state of self-perception. This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study investigated the mechanisms for ketamine’s effects on the bodily sense of self in the context of affective touch. Thirty healthy participants (15 females/15 males, age 19–39) received intravenous ketamine or placebo while performing self-touch and receiving touch by someone else during functional MRI – a previously established neural measure of tactile self-other-differentiation. Afterwards, tactile detection thresholds during self- and other-touch were assessed, as well as dissociative states, interoceptive awareness, and social touch attitudes. Compared to placebo, ketamine administration elicited dissociation and reduced neural activity associated with self-other-differentiation in the right temporoparietal cortex, which was most pronounced during other-touch. This reduction correlated with ketamine-induced reductions in interoceptive awareness. The temporoparietal cortex showed higher connectivity to somatosensory cortex and insula during other- compared to self-touch. This difference was augmented by ketamine, and correlated with dissociation strength for somatosensory cortex. These results demonstrate that disrupting the self-experience through ketamine administration affects neural activity associated with self-other-differentiation in a region involved in touch perception and social cognition, especially with regard to social touch by someone else. This process may be driven by ketamine-induced effects on top-down signaling, rendering the processing of predictable self-generated and unpredictable other-generated touch more similar. These findings provide further evidence for the intricate relationship of the bodily self with the tactile sense.
Journal Article
An Oxytocin-Induced Facilitation of Neural and Emotional Responses to Social Touch Correlates Inversely with Autism Traits
Social communication through touch and mutual grooming can convey highly salient socio-emotional signals and has been shown to involve the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) in several species. Less is known about the modulatory influence of OXT on the neural and emotional responses to human interpersonal touch. The present randomized placebo (PLC)-controlled within-subject pharmaco-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was designed to test the hypothesis that a single intranasal dose of synthetic OXT (24 IU) would facilitate both neural and emotional responses to interpersonal touch in a context- (female vs male touch) and trait- (autistic trait load) specific manner. Specifically, the experimental rationale was to manipulate the reward value of interpersonal touch independent of the intensity and type of actual cutaneous stimulation administered. Thus, 40 heterosexual males believed that they were touched by either a man or a woman, although in fact an identical pattern of touch was always given by the same female experimenter blind to condition type. Our results show that OXT increased the perceived pleasantness of female, but not male touch, and associated neural responses in insula, precuneus, orbitofrontal, and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex. Moreover, the behavioral and neural effects of OXT were negatively correlated with autistic-like traits. Taken together, this is the first study to show that the perceived hedonic value of human heterosexual interpersonal touch is facilitated by OXT in men, but that its behavioral and neural effects in this context are blunted in individuals with autistic traits.
Journal Article
Endocannabinoid contributions to the perception of socially relevant, affective touch in humans
Social relationships are central to well-being. A subgroup of afferent nerve fibers, C-tactile (CT) afferents, are primed to respond to affective, socially relevant touch and may mitigate the effects of stress. The endocannabinoid ligand anandamide (AEA) modulates both social reward and stress. We thus hypothesized that AEA levels would be associated with the perceived pleasantness of affective touch in humans. Across two studies, we explored perceptions of affective, socially relevant touch and general affective stimuli. In study 1, adult participants (N = 101) were recruited based on presence (CM+) or absence (CM−) of documented childhood maltreatment (N = 52 CM+; N = 49 CM−). In study 2, healthy individuals were randomized to receive an inhibitor of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH; PF-04457845) to increase AEA levels (n = 16) or placebo (n = 29). Outcomes included self-report ratings of touch pleasantness and intensity, valence and arousal ratings of affective images, and plasma levels of endocannabinoids AEA and 2-AG, cortisol, and oxytocin. In study 1, higher AEA levels were associated with a reduced preference for affective, CT-optimal touch. In study 2, pharmacological elevation of AEA resulted in reduced preference for affective touch. These effects were specific to social processing, as AEA levels were not related to ratings of affective images. In contrast to our hypothesis, elevated AEA was associated with reduced pleasantness ratings of CT-optimal, affective touch. This provides novel, in-human data linking AEA to social processing, adding nuance to the rationale for its use as a potential novel therapeutic target in disordered in social processing.
Journal Article
I hear a pickle : (and smell, see, touch, and taste it, too!)
Children explore their five senses, learning what they can see, smell, hear, touch, and taste.
Book
A subset of spinal dorsal horn interneurons crucial for gating touch-evoked pain-like behavior
A cardinal, intractable symptom of neuropathic pain is mechanical allodynia, pain caused by innocuous stimuli via low-threshold mechanoreceptors such as Aβ fibers. However, the mechanism by which Aβ fiber-derived signals are converted to pain remains incompletely understood. Here we identify a subset of inhibitory interneurons in the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) operated by adeno-associated viral vectors incorporating a neuropeptide Y promoter (AAV-NpyP⁺) and show that specific ablation or silencing of AAV-NpyP⁺ SDH interneurons converted touch-sensing Aβ fiber-derived signals to morphine-resistant pain-like behavioral responses. AAV-NpyP⁺ neurons received excitatory inputs from Aβ fibers and transmitted inhibitory GABA signals to lamina I neurons projecting to the brain. In a model of neuropathic pain developed by peripheral nerve injury, AAV-NpyP⁺ neurons exhibited deeper resting membrane potentials, and their excitation by Aβ fibers was impaired. Conversely, chemogenetic activation of AAV-NpyP⁺ neurons in nerve-injured rats reversed Aβ fiber-derived neuropathic pain-like behavior that was shown to be morphine-resistant and reduced pathological neuronal activation of superficial SDH including lamina I. These findings suggest that identified inhibitory SDH interneurons that act as a critical brake on conversion of touch-sensing Aβ fiber signals into pain-like behavioral responses. Thus, enhancing activity of these neurons may offer a novel strategy for treating neuropathic allodynia.
Journal Article
Have a look, says book
Through illustrations and simple, rhyming text, a book invites its reader to explore fluffy, furry, or squishy objects and creatures, both real and imaginary, that are found within its pages.
Book
Effects of MDMA on attention to positive social cues and pleasantness of affective touch
The psychostimulant drug ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) reportedly produces distinctive feelings of empathy and closeness with others. MDMA increases social behavior in animal models and has shown promise in psychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). How it produces these prosocial effects is not known. This behavioral and psychophysiological study examined the effects of MDMA, compared with the prototypical stimulant methamphetamine (MA), on two measures of social behavior in healthy young adults: (i) responses to socially relevant, “affective” touch, and (ii) visual attention to emotional faces. Men and women (N = 36) attended four sessions in which they received MDMA (0.75 or 1.5 mg/kg), MA (20 mg), or a placebo in randomized order under double-blind conditions. Responses to experienced and observed affective touch (i.e., being touched or watching others being touched) were assessed using facial electromyography (EMG), a proxy of affective state. Responses to emotional faces were assessed using electrooculography (EOG) in a measure of attentional bias. Subjective ratings were also included. We hypothesized that MDMA, but not MA, would enhance the ratings of pleasantness and psychophysiological responses to affective touch and increase attentional bias toward positive facial expressions. Consistent with this, we found that MDMA, but not MA, selectively enhanced ratings of pleasantness of experienced affective touch. Neither drug altered the ratings of pleasantness of observed touch. On the EOG measure of attentional bias, MDMA, but not MA, increased attention toward happy faces. These results provide new evidence that MDMA can enhance the experience of positive social interactions; in this case, pleasantness of physical touch and attentional bias toward positive facial expressions. The findings are consistent with evidence that the prosocial effects are unique to MDMA relative to another stimulant. Understanding the behavioral and neurobiological processes underlying the distinctive social effects of MDMA is a key step to developing the drug for psychiatric disorders.
Journal Article