Chatel-Goldman Jonas, Congedo Marco, Jutten Christian, Schwartz Jean-Luc
Grenoble Images Parole Signal Automatique (Gipsa-lab), Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, CNRS, UMR5216, Université Joseph Fourier, Université Pierre-Mendès-France, Université Stendhal - Grenoble France.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2014 Mar 27;8:95. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00095. eCollection 2014.
Interpersonal touch is of paramount importance in human social bonding and close relationships, allowing a unique channel for affect communication. So far the effect of touch on human physiology has been studied at an individual level. The present study aims at extending the study of affective touch from isolated individuals to truly interacting dyads. We have designed an ecological paradigm where romantic partners interact only via touch and we manipulate their empathic states. Simultaneously, we collected their autonomic activity (skin conductance, pulse, respiration). Fourteen couples participated to the experiment. We found that interpersonal touch increased coupling of electrodermal activity between the interacting partners, regardless the intensity and valence of the emotion felt. In addition, physical touch induced strong and reliable changes in physiological states within individuals. These results support an instrumental role of interpersonal touch for affective support in close relationships. Furthermore, they suggest that touch alone allows the emergence of a somatovisceral resonance between interacting individuals, which in turn is likely to form the prerequisites for emotional contagion and empathy.
人际接触在人类社会联系和亲密关系中至关重要，它为情感交流提供了一个独特的渠道。到目前为止，接触对人类生理的影响已在个体层面上进行了研究。本研究旨在将情感接触的研究从孤立个体扩展到真正互动的二元组。我们设计了一种生态范式，让浪漫伴侣仅通过接触进行互动，并操纵他们的共情状态。同时，我们收集他们的自主活动（皮肤电传导、脉搏、呼吸）。十四对情侣参与了实验。我们发现，人际接触增加了互动伴侣之间皮肤电活动的耦合，无论所感受到的情绪强度和效价如何。此外，身体接触在个体内部引起了生理状态的强烈且可靠的变化。这些结果支持了人际接触在亲密关系中对情感支持的工具性作用。此外，它们表明仅接触就能在互动个体之间产生躯体-内脏共鸣，这反过来又可能构成情绪感染和共情的先决条件。
