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.2014 Feb 28:8:60.
doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00060. eCollection 2014.

Touching moments: desire modulates the neural anticipation of active romantic caress

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Touching moments: desire modulates the neural anticipation of active romantic caress

Sjoerd J Ebisch et al. Front Behav Neurosci..

Abstract

A romantic caress is a basic expression of affiliative behavior and a primary reinforcer. Given its inherent affective valence, its performance also would imply the prediction of reward values. For example, touching a person for whom one has strong passionate feelings likely is motivated by a strong desire for physical contact and associated with the anticipation of hedonic experiences. The present study aims at investigating how the anticipatory neural processes of active romantic caress are modulated by the intensity of the desire for affective contact as reflected by passionate feelings for the other. Functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning was performed in romantically involved partners using a paradigm that allowed to isolate the specific anticipatory representations of active romantic caress, compared with control caress, while testing for the relationship between neural activity and measures of feelings of passionate love for the other. The results demonstrated that right posterior insula activity in anticipation of romantic caress significantly co-varied with the intensity of desire for union with the other. This effect was independent of the sensory-affective properties of the performed touch, like its pleasantness. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis showed that the same posterior insula cluster interacted with brain regions related to sensory-motor functions as well as to the processing and anticipation of reward. The findings provide insight on the neural substrate mediating between the desire for and the performance of romantic caress. In particular, we propose that anticipatory activity patterns in posterior insula may modulate subsequent sensory-affective processing of skin-to-skin contact.

Keywords: active touch; affective touch; affilliative behavior; desire; fMRI; posterior insula; reward anticipation; social touch.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental setup.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Time course of the experiment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Group statistical maps of right posterior insula activity covarying with PLS scores (thresholded atp < 0.01 corrected, corresponding tor > 0.63), and scatter plot depicting the correlation between anticipatory BOLD-response for romantic caress in posterior insula and PLS scores.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Graphs depicting BOLD-response in right posterior insula during the performance of romantic and control caress (*p < 0.05).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Group statistical maps and graphs depicting differential BOLD-response for the romantic caress and control caress condition, both during caress anticipation and during caress performance, as detected by conjunction analysis thresholded att > 3.61,p < 0.01 corrected. Abbreviations: PostCS: postcentral sulcus; SI: primary somatosensory cortex.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(A) Functional connectivity maps of the seed ROI in right posterior insula.(B) Group statistical maps of posterior insula connectivity covarying with PLS scores in right parahippocampal cortex. Abbreviations: SMA: supplementary motor area; SPC: superior parietal cortex; PreCG: precentral gyrus; PostCG: postcentral gyrus; MCC: mid cingulate cortex; PCC: posterior cingulate cortex; S2: secondary somatosensory cortex; pIC: posterior insula; Thal: thalamus; OT: occipital-temporal cortex; FG: fusiform gyrus; GP: globus pallidus; vMIC: ventral mid insular cortex.
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