Social Touch During Development: Long-Term Effects on Brain and Behavior

Publication date: Available online 29 September 2018Source: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsAuthor(s): K.L. Bales, L.R. Witczak, T.C. Simmons, L.E. Savidge, E.S. Rothwell, F.D. Rogers, R.A. Manning, M.J. Heise, M. Englund, R. Arias del RazoAbstractIn this paper, our goal is to explore what is known about the role of social touch during development. We first address the neural substrates of social touch and the role of tactile experience in neural development. We discuss natural variation in early exposure to social touch, followed by a discussion on experimental manipulations of social touch during development and “natural experiments”, such as early institutionalization. We then consider the role of other developmental and experiential variables that predict social touch in adults. Throughout, we propose and consider new theoretical models of the role of social touch during development on later behavior and neurobiology.
Source: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research