A growing body of evidence from the behavioural and neural sciences indicates that social
touch has a vital role in human development and psychological well-being. Despite some …

Avatars and social robots offer new opportunities for communication and raise questions
about how trust is built and maintained in hybrid social interactions. We wonder what kind of …

Depression is associated with loss of pleasure in previously enjoyed activities and
withdrawal from social interactions. Depression alters the perception of social cues, but it is …

Enhanced tactile acuity in blindness is among the most widely reported results of
neuroplasticity following prolonged visual deprivation. However, tactile submodalities other …

Interoception is related to the generation of bodily feelings and the awareness of ourselves
as 'sentient beings', informing the organism about its bodily needs to guarantee survival …

C-tactile afferents (CTs) are a class of unmyelinated, mechanosensitive nerve fibre that
respond optimally to skin temperature, slow moving touch typical of a caress. They are …

The last decades have seen an increasing focus on skin-mediated interoceptive modalities,
such as tactile pleasantness and pain. For touch, this interest has been partially motivated …

Abstract The stimulant±3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been shown to
enhance the perceived pleasantness of touch. However, the underlying neural processes …