The influence of affective touch on interoceptive and exteroceptive sensory integration in infants: evidence from heartbeat-evoked and event-related potentials.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The daily accumulation of multimodal interactions with a primary caregiver is thought to integrate interoceptive and exteroceptive information in the infant brain, which may contribute to the development of social cognition. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this integration in infancy remain largely unexplored. Focusing on affective touch as a sensory stimulus affecting infants' interoception during caregiver-infant interactions, this study examined how the perception of affective touch (i.e., stroking) affects the neural processing of interoceptive-exteroceptive integration in infants' brains.

Methods

During the exposure phase, infants' legs were stroked while viewing a stranger's face (Affective Touch, AT), while another face was presented without tou

SUBMITTER: Tanaka Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12554756 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature