School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2018 Sep;92:453-463. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.07.008. Epub 2018 Jul 20.
For centuries, scholars have been puzzled by the distinct human prosociality. A variety of explanations have been proposed to unveil the mystery of it and nearly all these explanations have focused on the role of complex cognitive processes. In this paper, we propose a novel hypothesis that human prosociality is touch-scaffolded. We argue that early tactile stimulation such as maternal touch serves as the basic component that enables the emergence of nascent human prosociality. During this process, C-tactile afferents along with many neuropeptides, such as oxytocin and endogenous opioids, play pivotal roles in the touch - prosociality connection by facilitating the formation of an intimate caregiver-infant bond and the development of a positive social schema. Our model provides a different perspective on the development of human prosociality and builds a bridge between the human tactile system and high-level psychology - human prosociality.
几个世纪以来，学者们一直对人类明显的亲社会性感到困惑。为了揭开这一谜团，提出了各种解释，几乎所有这些解释都集中在复杂认知过程的作用上。在本文中，我们提出了一个新的假设，即人类亲社会性是由触觉搭建的。我们认为，早期的触觉刺激，如母亲的触摸，是使新生的人类亲社会性出现的基本组成部分。在这个过程中，C 纤维传入神经和许多神经肽，如催产素和内啡肽，通过促进亲密的照顾者-婴儿关系的形成和积极的社会模式的发展，在触觉-亲社会性联系中发挥着关键作用。我们的模型为人类亲社会性的发展提供了一个不同的视角，并在人类触觉系统和高级心理学——人类亲社会性之间架起了一座桥梁。
