Brain mechanisms for processing discriminative and affective touch in 7-month-old infants
Affective touch has been associated with affiliative behavior during early stages of infant development; however, its underlying brain mechanisms are still poorly understood. This study used fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) to examine both affective and discriminative touch in 7-month-o...
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | article |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1822/66300 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Oai: | oai:repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt:1822/66300 |
| Summary: | Affective touch has been associated with affiliative behavior during early stages of infant development; however, its underlying brain mechanisms are still poorly understood. This study used fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) to examine both affective and discriminative touch in 7-month-old infants (n = 35). Infants were provided affective stimuli on the forearm for 10 sec followed by a 20 sec rest period. The protocol was repeated for discriminative touch, and both affective and discriminative stimuli were given in a counterbalanced order. Brain activation (oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin levels) in the somatosensory and temporal regions was registered during administration of the stimuli. There was an increase in oxy-hemoglobin and decrease in deoxyhemoglobin only in the somatosensory region in response to both affective and discriminative touch. No other activations were found. Seven-month-old infants' brain activation in the somatosensory cortex was similar for both discriminative and affective touch, but the stimuli did not elicit any activation in the temporal region/pSTS. Our study is the first to suggest that 7-month-old infants do not yet recruit socio-emotional brain areas in response to affective touch. |
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