The multifaceted roles of social touch

At the boundary between the body, the environment and others, touch is a key path for social interactions. Indeed, touch enables the transmission of pro-social and emotional signals that cannot be communicated through other sensory modalities. Thus, touch is important in myriad social situations, but often neglected. Moreover, research has shown a specialized pathway for affective touch, the CT system. In this presentation, I will put together the results of our recent studies shedding some lights on: (i) the crucial role of affective touch in communicating emotions, (ii) the role of touch in buffering feelings of social isolation and rejection, especially in times of forced social distancing; and (iii) ways to compensate for a lack of touch. Altogether, these studies highlight the necessity for future studies to investigate further the underlying mechanisms of social touch perception by taking into account interindividual differences, and the degree of socio-tactile interactions’ deprivation.