The equipment recorded blood flow in the brain. A greater supply of blood to certain areas of the brain indicates that these areas are helping to process the stimuli being perceived, in this case the soft brush strokes. The children’s arms were caressed at two different velocities, one relatively fast (20 centimeters per second) and one slower (3 centimeters per second). The slower velocity is in the range that people typically use for caressing other people and therefore is considered more social and affective than the fast velocity. And it turned out that the slow strokes produced a much stronger reaction in the brain than the fast ones. “What we have found is that the newborn brain already has another way of processing the more social touch, if it is compared with the less social one,” Emma Jönsson says. “It indicates that this is a priority from a very early age, and that touch is very important in infancy. Previous studies also have shown the importance of touch, but this is the first time that we can see it purely in terms of brain activation.
“Different parts of the nervous system mature at different rates, but human communication takes place at such a fundamental level,” she continues, “and it is important for even small children to be able to perceive it. Our brain is prepared to process this from birth. Touch is important for early bond formation with parents, and it is necessary for normal development. There are several difficulties involved in investigating very small children. They cannot be asked about how they experience touch, whereas in studies of adults the subjects’ own perceptions also are taken into account. And other neuroimaging methods have required that the head be kept stationary, which is difficult when it comes to infants. The current method and equipment, which uses near-infrared light to measure blood flows, allows the child to move to some extent. The study was carried out in Turku with colleagues from Finland, Sweden and Germany. Her thesis also includes other studies of interpersonal affective touch, although they involved adults. Among other things, research shows that a person in a longstanding relationship is less inclined to experience a touch as erotic and that the feeling of pleasure when touched is stronger among women than among men. The studies constitute new building blocks within an area of research that, according to Emma Jönsson, will continue to grow.
“Touch has been studied a great deal less than hearing and sight, but just during the few years I’ve been working with it, the field has grown much larger ,” she declares.
