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Infant brain response to affective and discriminative touch: A longitudinal study using fNIRS

Helga O Miguel1,2, Óscar F Gonçalves2,3, Sara Cruz2

  • 1a Division of Imaging, Behavior, and Genetic Integrity, Section on Analytical and Functional, National Institute of Child and Human Development, NIH , Bethesda , MD , USA.

Social Neuroscience
|October 24, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Brain responses to touch in infants show developmental changes. Affective touch processing in the temporal region matures in the second half of the first year of life, indicating early brain development.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Infant Brain Development

Background:

  • Affective touch activates the social brain network in older individuals.
  • Neural mechanisms of affective touch processing in infants are poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate brain responses to affective and discriminative touch in infants.
  • To analyze the developmental trajectory of touch processing in the first year of life.

Main Methods:

  • Functional near-spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record brain activity in infants.
  • Seven-month-old infants (N=35) and the same infants at 12 months (N=25) received affective and discriminative touch.

Main Results:

  • At seven months, infants showed somatosensory activation for both touch types, but no temporal activation for affective touch.
  • By 12 months, infants exhibited increased temporal brain activity in response to affective touch compared to seven-month-olds.

Conclusions:

  • Infant brain processing of touch undergoes developmental changes within the first year.
  • The temporal region's involvement in affective touch processing emerges in the second half of infancy.

Keywords:
Touch processinginfancysocial-emotional development

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