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Related Concept Videos

Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch01:15

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The history of therapeutic communication can be traced back to Florence Nightingale, who emphasized the importance of developing trusting relationships with patients. She taught that the presence of nurses with patients results in therapeutic healing.
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The skin is the largest organ of the human body and plays a crucial role in our sensory perception. It contains a vast network of sensory receptors that contribute to the skin's protective function by perceiving physical, biological, and environmental cues and generating relevant responses.
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Local anesthetics (LAs) block the sodium channels of nerve trunks, sensory nerve endings, and neuromuscular junctions. Although LAs can block all kinds of nerves, the sensitivity of nerve fibers differs according to nerve types and structures. LAs are known to block myelinated fibers faster than unmyelinated ones. Also, they block pain or sensory neurons at low concentrations without affecting the motor neurons involved in muscle contractions. This helps relieve labor pain without affecting the...
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Somatosensation01:33

Somatosensation

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The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.
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Tactile and Chemical Senses01:27

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Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 15, 2025

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans
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Affective Touch Reduces Electrically Induced Itch Experience.

Larissa L Meijer1, Zoë A Schielen1, Kim Y van Ree1

  • 1Experimental Psychology/Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Frontiers in Medicine
|March 4, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Gentle skin stroking, known as affective touch, significantly reduces electrically induced itch. This finding offers a potential new, non-pharmacological approach for managing itch symptoms.

Keywords:
C-fibersaffective touchitchreliefsomatosensory

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Dermatology
  • Sensory Science

Background:

  • Itch is a common symptom impacting quality of life, with some cases resistant to antihistamines.
  • Research suggests inhibitory links between affective touch, pain, and itch due to overlapping neural pathways.
  • Investigating affective touch's effect on itch is crucial for developing novel treatments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if a relationship exists between affective touch and itch.
  • To investigate whether affective touch can inhibit experimentally induced itch.

Main Methods:

  • Electrically induced itch on the ventral wrist in 61 participants.
  • Within-subject design comparing affective touch (3 cm/s brushing) and non-affective touch (18 cm/s brushing) on the forearm.
  • Visual Analog Scale (VAS) measurements of itch intensity recorded every 2 minutes over 20 minutes.

Main Results:

  • Both affective and non-affective touch significantly reduced itch compared to baseline.
  • Affective touch demonstrated a significantly greater itch-relieving effect than non-affective touch.
  • Itch reduction began within 2 minutes of stroking and persisted throughout the study period.

Conclusions:

  • Affective touch exerts a relieving effect on electrically induced itch.
  • This finding supports the potential of affective touch as a therapeutic strategy for itch management.
  • The results align with previous research indicating affective touch's inhibitory effect on pain.