Tagini Sofia, Scacchi Massimo, Mauro Alessandro, Scarpina Federica
"Rita Levi Montalcini" Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Istituto Auxologico Italiano, I.R.C.C.S., U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 28;14:1171070. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1171070. eCollection 2023.
Pleasant and comforting bodily contacts characterized intimate and affective interactions. Affective touch informs us about others' emotions and intentions, sustains intimacy and closeness, protecting from loneliness and psychological distress. Previous evidence points to an altered experience of affective touch in clinical populations reporting interpersonal difficulties. However, there is no investigation of affective touch in obesity, which is often associated with negative affective-relational experiences since childhood.
This study aimed to provide the first evidence about the experience of affective touch in obesity by comparing 14 women with obesity with 14 women with healthy weight. Participants rated the pleasantness of both imagined and actual tactile stimuli, which consisted of () soft-brush strokes, () touches of the experimenter's hand, and () of a plastic stick (as control, non-affective, stimulation). Participants should report the pleasantness of each kind of touch. Moreover, we explored lifespan experiences of affective touch and interpersonal pleasure in social contexts through self-report questionnaires.
No differences emerged for the pleasantness of affective touch (in both the real and imagery task) between the two groups. However, participants with obesity reported less frequent and less satisfying early experiences of affective touch when compared with the controls.
Our results spoke in favor of a preserved experience of affective touch when experimentally probed in obesity, despite a limited early exposure to bodily affective contacts. We interpreted our results in the light of the . Nevertheless, we provided crucial methodological considerations for future research, considering that both the experimenter's and the brush touch may not resemble adequately real-life experiences, in which affective touch involves intimate people.
愉悦且舒适的身体接触是亲密和情感互动的特征。情感触摸能让我们了解他人的情绪和意图，维持亲密关系，使人免受孤独和心理困扰。先前的证据表明，在报告存在人际困难的临床人群中，情感触摸的体验有所改变。然而，尚未有对肥胖人群情感触摸的研究，肥胖往往与自童年起就有的负面情感关系体验相关。
本研究旨在通过比较14名肥胖女性和14名体重正常的女性，首次提供关于肥胖人群情感触摸体验的证据。参与者对想象和实际的触觉刺激的愉悦程度进行评分，这些刺激包括：（）软毛刷轻刷、（）实验者手部触摸以及（）塑料棒触摸（作为对照，非情感性刺激）。参与者需报告每种触摸的愉悦程度。此外，我们通过自我报告问卷探讨了情感触摸和社交情境中人际愉悦的终生经历。
两组之间在情感触摸的愉悦程度（无论是实际任务还是想象任务）上均未出现差异。然而，与对照组相比，肥胖参与者报告的早期情感触摸经历频率更低且满意度更低。
我们的结果表明，尽管肥胖人群早期身体情感接触有限，但在实验探究时情感触摸体验得以保留。我们根据……来解释我们的结果。尽管如此，我们为未来研究提供了关键的方法学考量，因为实验者的触摸和毛刷触摸可能都无法充分模拟现实生活中的体验，在现实生活中情感触摸涉及亲密的人。
