Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans
Published on: March 15, 2019
Chronic pain relief after receiving affective touch: A single case report
Larissa L Meijer1, Carla Ruis1,2, Maarten J van der Smagt1
1Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Affective touch is gentle slow stroking of the skin, which can reduce experimentally induced pain. Our participant, suffering from Parkinson's Disease and chronic pain, received 1 week of non-affective touch and 1 week of affective touch as part of a larger study. Interestingly, after 2 days of receiving affective touch, the participant started to feel less pain. After 7 days, the burning painful sensations fully disappeared. This suggest that affective touch may reduce chronic pain in clinical populations.

