Affective Touch

We are increasingly interested in measuring “affection” and “valence” to sensory stimulations.

With respect to neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, social touch provides a key link between low-level perception and social difficulties. We are particularly interested in studying the ecological validity of real-life social interactions with respect to sensory processing. In particular we are interested in individuals’ attitude to social tactile interactions, and the extent to which social tactile interactions are difficult or effortful.

Given our suggested findings that low level tactile differences are associated with clinical core social difficulties in autism, we are also interested to determine to what extent tactile perceptual difficulties impact social touch experiences.

While we are currently applying these tasks in autistic and non-autistic populations, our first paper aims to validate these new social touch tasks in both the UK, and in Singapore. Led by Helen Powell, we find distinct responses to social touch stimuli, depending on the type of relationship with the other individual, as well as gender. Moreover, we find that the ability to discriminate simple tactile stimuli predicts how much a person prefers social touch over non-social, or the absence, of touch. We find strong gender effects, and some cultural differences as well.

More info here