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fNIRS detects temporal lobe response to affective touch.

Randi H Bennett¹, Danielle Z Bolling, Laura C Anderson

¹Yale University, 230 South Frontage Road, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. martha.kaiser@yale.edu.

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

|January 19, 2013

Summary

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) effectively measures brain responses to gentle, C-tactile (CT) touch. This technique can track social brain development and sensory processing differences, including in autism.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Social Neuroscience

Background:

Social-emotional development relies heavily on touch.
C-tactile (CT) nerve fibers process slow, gentle touch on hairy skin.
Social brain regions like the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) are involved in processing CT-targeted touch.

Purpose of the Study:

To validate functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for measuring temporal lobe responses to CT-targeted touch.
To assess the feasibility of using fNIRS with infant populations for developmental studies.
To explore neural mechanisms underlying touch processing and its relation to autistic traits.

Main Methods:

Healthy adults underwent fNIRS while receiving brushing stimuli to the forearm (CT-targeted) and palm (non-CT).

Keywords:

CT afferents affective touch autistic traits fNIRS superior temporal sulcus

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A block design procedure was used to differentiate brain responses to distinct touch types.

Individual differences in autistic traits were assessed in relation to neural activation.

Main Results:

fNIRS detected significant activation in the right pSTS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for arm touch compared to palm touch.
Activation magnitude in the pSTS correlated with individual differences in autistic traits.
The study demonstrated fNIRS's capability to detect brain responses to CT-targeted touch.

Conclusions:

fNIRS is a viable tool for measuring brain responses to CT-targeted touch, even in adults.
This validates fNIRS for future infant studies on the development of touch processing.
Findings provide a foundation for investigating sensory processing in typical and atypical development, including autism spectrum disorder.