ON THE ROLE OF TOUCH FOR SOCIO-EMOTIONAL PROCESSING

Abstract

Being touched makes people kinder and more positive towards their surrounding. This may be underpinned by changes in the modes of information processing during or after the tactile interaction. In this thesis I pursued a possible role of touch in shaping the processing of socio-emotional information using behavioral, ERP, and EEG measures. In particular, I was interested in CT afferents, a special skin mechanoreceptor that is activated by gentle stroking on hairy skin and is thought to be relevant for affective or social touch. In Experiment 1, I investigated whether the activation of these afferents influences the processing of social and non-social stimuli by comparing faces to houses. In Experiment 2 and 3, I investigated whether touch influences the processing of face emotion and trustworthiness, respectively. The results showed that CT touch likely shapes the recipients' emotion and trustworthiness perceptions rather than social processing.