TY - CHAP
T1 - The touched self
T2 - Affective touch and body awareness in health and disease
AU - Gentsch, Antje
AU - Crucianelli, Laura
AU - Jenkinson, Paul
AU - Fotopoulou, Aikaterini
N1 - Antje Gentsch, Laura Crucianelli, Paul Jenkinson, Aikaterini Fotopoulou, ‘The touched self: Affective touch and body awareness in health and disease’, in Hakan Olausson, Johan Wessberg, India Morrison, Francis McGlone, eds., Affective touch and the neurophysiology of CT afferents, (Switzerland: Springer, 2016), ISBN 978-1-4939-6416-1, eISBN 978-1-4939-6418-5.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - This chapter focuses on how interpersonal, affective touch shapes our sense of self as embodied beings. In the first section, we highlight the centrality of bodily representations for our psychological sense of self, with special emphasis on the role of internal bodily signals in forming the emotional, core of selfhood. The second section focuses on affective touch as a domain of interoception and addresses its important contribution to healthy body representation and bodily awareness. Specifically, we present recent, accumulating evidence in healthy volunteers pointing to the crucial role of affective touch in the construction and maintenance of fundamental facets of bodily awareness, such as the sense of body ownership. Finally, in a third section, we discuss findings in neurological and psychiatric disorders of body representation and awareness, indicating the importance of affective touch and other affiliative, interpersonal signals for the construction of a coherent, efficient and resilient sense of embodied selfhood. Overall, our chapter draws on perspectives from multiple mind and brain fields in order to highlight how affective touch, a bodily modality by which we can communicate social affiliation and care, has a fundamental role in the constitution of selfhood.
AB - This chapter focuses on how interpersonal, affective touch shapes our sense of self as embodied beings. In the first section, we highlight the centrality of bodily representations for our psychological sense of self, with special emphasis on the role of internal bodily signals in forming the emotional, core of selfhood. The second section focuses on affective touch as a domain of interoception and addresses its important contribution to healthy body representation and bodily awareness. Specifically, we present recent, accumulating evidence in healthy volunteers pointing to the crucial role of affective touch in the construction and maintenance of fundamental facets of bodily awareness, such as the sense of body ownership. Finally, in a third section, we discuss findings in neurological and psychiatric disorders of body representation and awareness, indicating the importance of affective touch and other affiliative, interpersonal signals for the construction of a coherent, efficient and resilient sense of embodied selfhood. Overall, our chapter draws on perspectives from multiple mind and brain fields in order to highlight how affective touch, a bodily modality by which we can communicate social affiliation and care, has a fundamental role in the constitution of selfhood.
M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)
SN - 978-1-4939-6416-1
SP - 355
EP - 384
BT - Affective touch and the neurophysiology of CT afferents
A2 - Olausson, Hakan
A2 - Wessberg, Johan
A2 - Morrison, India
A2 - McGlone, Francis
PB - Springer Nature Link
CY - New York
ER -