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Updated: May 1, 2026

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans
Published on: March 15, 2019
Physiological and behavioral responses reveal 9-month-old infants' sensitivity to pleasant touch
Merle T Fairhurst1, Line Löken, Tobias Grossmann
11Early Social Development Group, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Abstract:
Caregiving touch has been shown to be essential for the growth and development of human infants. However, the physiological and behavioral mechanisms that underpin infants' sensitivity to pleasant touch are still poorly understood. In human adults, a subclass of unmyelinated peripheral nerve fibers has been shown to respond preferentially to medium-velocity soft brushing. It has been theorized that this privileged pathway for pleasant touch is used for close affiliative interactions with conspecific individuals, especially between caregivers and infants. To test whether human infants are sensitive to pleasant touch, we examined arousal (heart rate) and attentional engagement (gaze shifts and duration of looks) to varying velocities of brushing (slow, medium, and fast) in 9-month-old infants. Our results provide physiological and behavioral evidence that sensitivity to pleasant touch emerges early in development and therefore plays an important role in regulating human social interactions.
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