Fotopoulou Aikaterini, von Mohr Mariana, Krahé Charlotte
Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK.
Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2022 Feb;43:80-87. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.08.008.
We focus on social touch as a paradigmatic case of the embodied, cognitive, and metacognitive processes involved in social, affective regulation. Social touch appears to contribute three interrelated but distinct functions to affective regulation. First, it regulates affects by fulfilling embodied predictions about social proximity and attachment. Second, caregiving touch, such as warming an infant, regulates affect by socially enacting homeostatic control and co-regulation of physiological states. Third, affective touch such as gentle stroking or tickling regulates affect by allostatic regulation of the salience and epistemic gain of particular experiences in given contexts and timescales. These three functions of affective touch are most likely mediated, at least partly, by different neurobiological processes, including convergent hedonic, dopaminergic and analgesic, opioidergic pathways for the attachment function, 'calming' autonomic and endocrine pathways for the homeostatic function, while the allostatic function may be mediated by oxytocin release and related 'salience' neuromodulators and circuits.
我们将社交触摸视为参与社会情感调节的具身、认知和元认知过程的一个典型案例。社交触摸似乎对情感调节具有三种相互关联但又截然不同的功能。首先，它通过实现关于社会亲近和依恋的具身预测来调节情感。其次，照顾性触摸，如温暖婴儿，通过在社会层面上实施内稳态控制和生理状态的共同调节来调节情感。第三，情感触摸，如轻柔抚摸或挠痒痒，通过在特定情境和时间尺度上对特定体验的显著性和认知增益进行应激调节来调节情感。情感触摸的这三种功能很可能至少部分地由不同的神经生物学过程介导，包括用于依恋功能的趋同享乐、多巴胺能和镇痛、阿片样物质途径，用于内稳态功能的“平静”自主神经和内分泌途径，而应激功能可能由催产素释放以及相关的“显著性”神经调节剂和神经回路介导。
