Affective touch: a communication channel for social exchange

Bridging the gap between the neurophysiology of C-tactile mediated touch and the psychology of how social touch makes us feel, we present a definition of affective touch as mediated through CT afferents. We clarify how gentle stroking activating the CT system communicates a signal for social exchange. We describe what is already known about the nature of this signal and how it is perceived as a function of multisensory input and individual differences. Reviewing sender-specific and receiver-specific effects, we bring these streams together to outline a hybrid communication model of affective touch. We propose that affective touch should not be operationalized by simply involving CT afferent activation and a narrow range of stimulation modes, but instead should consider the entire communication chain: signal, receiver, sender and the dynamic exchange between interacting agents. Such a complete communication model presents new research directions to disentangle bottom-up and top-down mediated effects on perception.