Feeling Touched: Emotional Modulation of Somatosensory Potentials to Interpersonal Touch.

ABSTRACT: Although the previous studies have shown that an emotional context may alter touch processing, it is not clear how visual contextual information modulates the sensory signals, and at what levels does this modulation take place. Therefore, we investigated how a toucher's emotional expressions (anger, happiness, fear, and sadness) modulate touchee's somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) in different temporal ranges. Participants were presented with tactile stimulation appearing to originate from expressive characters in virtual reality. Touch processing was indexed using SEPs, and self-reports of touch experience were collected. Early potentials were found to be amplified after angry, happy and sad facial expressions, while late potentials were amplified after anger but attenuated after hap

SUBMITTER: Ravaja N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5228183 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature