社会触摸的认知神经机制综述
Cognitive Neural Mechanisms and Applications of Social Touch
DOI: 10.12677/ap.2026.1610500, PDF,    科研立项经费支持
作者: 郑宇佳, 麻 珂:西南大学心理学部,重庆
关键词: 社会触摸;生理机制;社会功能;技术触摸;Social Touch; Physiological Mechanisms; Social Functions; Technology-Mediated Touch
摘要: 社会触摸(Social Touch)是个体间以调节社会关系、传递社交信号为核心目的的触觉交互。本文将社会触摸与人际触摸、情感触摸区分开,并系统梳理了社会触摸的类型、影响因素、神经生理机制以及功能和应用。社会触摸可以缓冲压力、促进依恋与学习,以及构建信任、维系关系与增强凝聚力。除了真实触摸,技术介导的社会触摸也得到了一定的发展,在临床与健康领域有较好的应用可能。本文指出,当前该领域的研究在理论框架、研究方法与文化普适性方面存在局限,未来研究需在提升技术触摸真实感、建立个体化适配方案,及应对随之而来的伦理挑战等方面进行深入探索。
Abstract: Social Touch refers to tactile interactions between individuals. Its primary purpose is to regulate social relationships and convey social signals. This paper provides a clear definition of Social Touch, which distinguishes it from Interpersonal Touch and Affective Touch. Besides, the types, influencing factors, neurophysiological mechanisms, functions, and applications of Social Touch were systematically reviewed. Social Touch can alleviate stress, promote attachment and learning, build trust, maintain relationships, and enhance cohesion. In addition to physical touch, technology-mediated forms of Social Touch, such as Mediated Social Touch and Substitute Social Touch, also have significant development and hold promising applications in clinical and health settings. This paper points out that current research in this field has limitations regarding theoretical frameworks, research methods, and cultural universality. Future research needs to conduct in-depth exploration in areas such as enhancing the realism of Technology-mediated Touch, establishing personalized adaptation schemes, and addressing the resulting ethical challenges.
文章引用:郑宇佳, 麻珂 (2026). 社会触摸的认知神经机制综述. 心理学进展, 16(10), 353-364. https://doi.org/10.12677/ap.2026.1610500

参考文献

[1] 杨雪, 朱旭(2022). 情感触摸对心理健康的影响及应用. 心理科学进展, 30(12), 2789-2798.
[2] Ahmed, I., Harjunen, V. J., Jacucci, G., Ravaja, N., Ruotsalo, T., & Spapé, M. M. (2020). Touching Virtual Humans: Haptic Responses Reveal the Emotional Impact of Affective Agents. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, 14, 331-342.
https://doi.org/10.1109/taffc.2020.3038137
[3] Barnett, K. (1972). A Theoretical Construct of the Concepts of Touch as They Relate to Nursing. Nursing Research, 2, 102-109.
https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-197203000-00002
[4] Boehme, R., Hauser, S., Gerling, G. J., Heilig, M., & Olausson, H. (2019). Distinction of Self-Produced Touch and Social Touch at Cortical and Spinal Cord Levels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116, 2290-2299.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1816278116
[5] Brauer, J., Xiao, Y., Poulain, T., Friederici, A. D., & Schirmer, A. (2016). Frequency of Maternal Touch Predicts Resting Activity and Connectivity of the Developing Social Brain. Cerebral Cortex, 26, 3544-3552.
https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw137
[6] Camps, J., Tuteleers, C., Stouten, J., & Nelissen, J. (2013). A Situational Touch: How Touch Affects People’s Decision Behavior. Social Influence, 8, 237-250.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510.2012.719479
[7] Cascio, C. J. (2010). Somatosensory Processing in Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2, 62-69.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11689-010-9046-3
[8] Case, L. K., Liljencrantz, J., McCall, M. V., Bradson, M., Necaise, A., Tubbs, J. et al. (2021). Pleasant Deep Pressure: Expanding the Social Touch Hypothesis. Neuroscience, 464, 3-11.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.07.050
[9] Erk, S. M., Toet, A., & Van Erp, J. B. F. (2015). Effects of Mediated Social Touch on Affective Experiences and Trust. PeerJ, 3, e1297.
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1297
[10] Field, T. (2010). Touch for Socioemotional and Physical Well-Being: A Review. Developmental Review, 30, 367-383.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2011.01.001
[11] Field, T. (2019). Social Touch, CT Touch and Massage Therapy: A Narrative Review. Developmental Review, 51, 123-145.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2019.01.002
[12] Field, T., Diego, M. A., Hernandez-Reif, M., Deeds, O., & Figuereido, B. (2006). Moderate versus Light Pressure Massage Therapy Leads to Greater Weight Gain in Preterm Infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 29, 574-578.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.07.011
[13] Field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., Diego, M., Schanberg, S., & Kuhn, C. (2005). Cortisol Decreases and Serotonin and Dopamine Increase Following Massage Therapy. International Journal of Neuroscience, 115, 1397-1413.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207450590956459
[14] Gallace, A., & Girondini, M. (2022). Social Touch in Virtual Reality. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 249-254.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.11.006
[15] Gallace, A., & Spence, C. (2010). The Science of Interpersonal Touch: An Overview. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 34, 246-259.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.10.004
[16] Gazzola, V., Spezio, M. L., Etzel, J. A., Castelli, F., Adolphs, R., & Keysers, C. (2012). Primary Somatosensory Cortex Discriminates Affective Significance in Social Touch. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109, E1657-E1666.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1113211109
[17] Gentsch, A., Panagiotopoulou, E., & Fotopoulou, A. (2015). Active Interpersonal Touch Gives Rise to the Social Softness Illusion. Current Biology, 25, 2392-2397.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.049
[18] Gillmeister, H., Succi, A., Romei, V., & Poerio, G. L. (2022). Touching You, Touching Me: Higher Incidence of Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia and Positive (but Not Negative) Reactions to Social Touch in Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Consciousness and Cognition, 103, Article ID: 103380.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103380
[19] Gordon, I., Voos, A. C., Bennett, R. H., Bolling, D. Z., Pelphrey, K. A., & Kaiser, M. D. (2013). Brain Mechanisms for Processing Affective Touch. Human Brain Mapping, 34, 914-922.
https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21480
[20] Gothard, K. M., & Fuglevand, A. J. (2022). The Role of the Amygdala in Processing Social and Affective Touch. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 46-53.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.08.004
[21] Gupta, M. A., Gupta, A. K., & Watteel, G. N. (1998). Perceived Deprivation of Social Touch in Psoriasis Is Associated with Greater Psychologic Morbidity: An Index of the Stigma Experience in Dermatologic Disorders. Cutis, 61, 339-342.
[22] Haans, A., & IJsselsteijn, W. (2006). Mediated Social Touch: A Review of Current Research and Future Directions. Virtual Reality, 9, 149-159.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-005-0014-2
[23] Haans, A., IJsselsteijn, W. A., Graus, M. P., & Salminen, J. A. (2008). The Virtual Midas Touch: Helping Behavior after a Mediated Social Touch. In CHI’08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 3507-3512). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/1358628.1358882
[24] Hertenstein, M. J., Keltner, D., App, B., Bulleit, B. A., & Jaskolka, A. R. (2006a). Touch Communicates Distinct Emotions. Emotion, 6, 528-533.
https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.6.3.528
[25] Hertenstein, M. J., Verkamp, J. M., Kerestes, A. M., & Holmes, R. M. (2006b). The Communicative Functions of Touch in Humans, Nonhuman Primates, and Rats: A Review and Synthesis of the Empirical Research. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 132, 5-94.
https://doi.org/10.3200/mono.132.1.5-94
[26] Hoppe, M., Rossmy, B., Neumann, D. P., Streuber, S., Schmidt, A., & Machulla, T. (2020). A Human Touch: Social Touch Increases the Perceived Human-Likeness of Agents in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-11). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376719
[27] Huisman, G., Darriba Frederiks, A., Van Dijk, B., Hevlen, D., & Krose, B. (2013). The TaSSt: Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch. In 2013 World Haptics Conference (WHC) (pp. 211-216). IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/whc.2013.6548410
[28] Israr, A., & Abnousi, F. (2018). Towards Pleasant Touch: Vibrotactile Grids for Social Touch Interactions. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188546
[29] Jablonski, N. G. (2021). Social and Affective Touch in Primates and Its Role in the Evolution of Social Cohesion. Neuroscience, 464, 117-125.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.11.024
[30] Jung, M. M., Cang, X. L., Poel, M., & MacLean, K. E. (2015). Touch Challenge’15: Recognizing Social Touch Gestures. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM on International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 387-390). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/2818346.2829993
[31] Knight, H., Toscano, R., Stiehl, W. D., Chang, A., Wang, Y., & Breazeal, C. (2009). Real-Time Social Touch Gesture Recognition for Sensate Robots. In 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp. 3715-3720). IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/iros.2009.5354169
[32] Korisky, A., Eisenberger, N. I., Nevat, M., Weissman-Fogel, I., & Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2020). A Dual-Brain Approach for Understanding the Neuralmechanisms That Underlie the Comforting Effects of Social Touch. Cortex, 127, 333-346.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.01.028
[33] Kraus, M. W., Huang, C., & Keltner, D. (2010). Tactile Communication, Cooperation, and Performance: An Ethological Study of the NBA. Emotion, 10, 745-749.
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019382
[34] Kutner, J. S., Smith, M. C., Corbin, L., Hemphill, L., Benton, K., Mellis, B. K. et al. (2008). Massage Therapy versus Simple Touch to Improve Pain and Mood in Patients with Advanced Cancer. Annals of Internal Medicine, 149, 369-379.
https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-149-6-200809160-00003
[35] Lee Masson, H., & Op de Beeck, H. (2018). Socio-Affective Touch Expression Database. PLOS ONE, 13, e0190921.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190921
[36] Lew-Williams, C., Ferguson, B., Abu-Zhaya, R., & Seidl, A. (2019). Social Touch Interacts with Infants’ Learning of Auditory Patterns. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 35, 66-74.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.09.006
[37] Light, K. C., Grewen, K. M., & Amico, J. A. (2005). More Frequent Partner Hugs and Higher Oxytocin Levels Are Linked to Lower Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Premenopausal Women. Biological Psychology, 69, 5-21.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.11.002
[38] Löken, L. S., Wessberg, J., Morrison, I., McGlone, F., & Olausson, H. (2009). Coding of Pleasant Touch by Unmyelinated Afferents in Humans. Nature Neuroscience, 12, 547-548.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2312
[39] Maier, A., Gieling, C., Heinen-Ludwig, L., Stefan, V., Schultz, J., Güntürkün, O. et al. (2020). Association of Childhood Maltreatment with Interpersonal Distance and Social Touch Preferences in Adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 37-46.
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19020212
[40] Major, B., Schmidlin, A. M., & Williams, L. (1990). Gender Patterns in Social Touch: The Impact of Setting and Age. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 634-643.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.4.634
[41] McGlone, F., Wessberg, J., & Olausson, H. (2014). Discriminative and Affective Touch: Sensing and Feeling. Neuron, 82, 737-755.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.001
[42] McIntyre, S., Hauser, S. C., Kusztor, A., Boehme, R., Moungou, A., Isager, P. M. et al. (2022). The Language of Social Touch Is Intuitive and Quantifiable. Psychological Science, 33, 1477-1494.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211059801
[43] Miguel, H. O., Sampaio, A., Martínez-Regueiro, R., Gómez-Guerrero, L., López-Dóriga, C. G., Gómez, S. et al. (2017). Touch Processing and Social Behavior in ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47, 2425-2433.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3163-8
[44] Morrison, I. (2016). Keep Calm and Cuddle On: Social Touch as a Stress Buffer. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 2, 344-362.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-016-0052-x
[45] Morrison, I., Bjornsdotter, M., & Olausson, H. (2011). Vicarious Responses to Social Touch in Posterior Insular Cortex Are Tuned to Pleasant Caressing Speeds. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 9554-9562.
https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0397-11.2011
[46] Morrison, I., Löken, L. S., & Olausson, H. (2010). The Skin as a Social Organ. Experimental Brain Research, 204, 305-314.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2007-y
[47] Nummenmaa, L., Tuominen, L., Dunbar, R., Hirvonen, J., Manninen, S., Arponen, E. et al. (2016). Social Touch Modulates Endogenous Μ-Opioid System Activity in Humans. NeuroImage, 138, 242-247.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.063
[48] Park, J. H., Van Leeuwen, F., & Chochorelou, Y. (2013). Disease-Avoidance Processes and Stigmatization: Cues of Substandard Health Arouse Heightened Discomfort with Physical Contact. The Journal of Social Psychology, 153, 212-228.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2012.721812
[49] Peled‐Avron, L., & Shamay‐Tsoory, S. G. (2017). Don’t Touch Me! Autistic Traits Modulate Early and Late ERP Components during Visual Perception of Social Touch. Autism Research, 10, 1141-1154.
https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1762
[50] Saarinen, A., Harjunen, V., Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Jääskeläinen, I. P., & Ravaja, N. (2021). Social Touch Experience in Different Contexts: A Review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 131, 360-372.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.027
[51] Salvato, M., Williams, S. R., Nunez, C. M., Zhu, X., Israr, A., Lau, F. et al. (2021). Data-Driven Sparse Skin Stimulation Can Convey Social Touch Information to Humans. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 15, 392-404.
https://doi.org/10.1109/toh.2021.3129067
[52] Savallampi, M., Maallo, A. M. S., Shaikh, S., McGlone, F., Bariguian-Revel, F. J., Olausson, H. et al. (2023). Social Touch Reduces Pain Perception—An fMRI Study of Cortical Mechanisms. Brain Sciences, 13, Article 393.
https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13030393
[53] Scheele, D., Kendrick, K. M., Khouri, C., Kretzer, E., Schläpfer, T. E., Stoffel-Wagner, B. et al. (2014). An Oxytocin-Induced Facilitation of Neural and Emotional Responses to Social Touch Correlates Inversely with Autism Traits. Neuropsychopharmacology, 39, 2078-2085.
https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2014.78
[54] Shiomi, M., Sumioka, H., Sakai, K., Funayama, T., & Minato, T. (2020). SŌTO: An Android Platform with a Masculine Appearance for Social Touch Interaction. In Companion of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 447-449). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3371382.3378283
[55] Sicorello, M., Stevanov, J., Ashida, H., & Hecht, H. (2018). Effect of Gaze on Personal Space: A Japanese-German Cross-Cultural Study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50, 8-21.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022118798513
[56] Suvilehto, J. T., Glerean, E., Dunbar, R. I. M., Hari, R., & Nummenmaa, L. (2015). Topography of Social Touching Depends on Emotional Bonds between Humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 13811-13816.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519231112
[57] Suvilehto, J. T., Nummenmaa, L., Harada, T., Dunbar, R. I. M., Hari, R., Turner, R. et al. (2019). Cross-Cultural Similarity in Relationship-Specific Social Touching. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 286, Article ID: 20190467.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0467
[58] Sykownik, P., & Masuch, M. (2020). The Experience of Social Touch in Multi-User Virtual Reality. In 26th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (pp. 1-11). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3385956.3418944
[59] Tanaka, Y., Kanakogi, Y., & Myowa, M. (2021). Social Touch in Mother-Infant Interaction Affects Infants’ Subsequent Social Engagement and Object Exploration. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8, Article No. 32.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00642-4
[60] Tang, Y., Benusiglio, D., Lefevre, A., Hilfiger, L., Althammer, F., Bludau, A. et al. (2020). Social Touch Promotes Interfemale Communication via Activation of Parvocellular Oxytocin Neurons. Nature Neuroscience, 23, 1125-1137.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-0674-y
[61] Thayer, S. (1982). Social Touching. In W. Schiff, & E. Foulke (Eds.), Tactual Perception: A Sourcebook (pp. 263-304). Cambridge University Press.
[62] Thayer, S. (1986). History and Strategies of Research on Social Touch. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 10, 12-28.
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00987202
[63] Triandis, H. C. (2001). Individualism‐Collectivism and Personality. Journal of Personality, 69, 907-924.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.696169
[64] Triscoli, C., Croy, I., & Sailer, U. (2019). Depression Predicts Interpersonal Problems Partially through the Attitude towards Social Touch. Journal of Affective Disorders, 246, 234-240.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.054
[65] van Erp, J. B. F., & Toet, A. (2015). Social Touch in Human-Computer Interaction. Frontiers in Digital Humanities, 2, Article 2.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fdigh.2015.00002
[66] Vieira, A. I., Nogueira, D., de Azevedo Reis, E., da Lapa Rosado, M., Vânia Nunes, M., & Castro-Caldas, A. (2016). Hand Tactile Discrimination, Social Touch and Frailty Criteria in Elderly People: A Cross Sectional Observational Study. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 66, 73-81.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2016.04.012
[67] von Mohr, M., Kirsch, L. P., & Fotopoulou, A. (2021). Social Touch Deprivation during COVID-19: Effects on Psychological Wellbeing and Craving Interpersonal Touch. Royal Society Open Science, 8, Article ID: 210287.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210287
[68] Walters, K. A., & Roberts, M. S. (2002). The Structure and Function of Skin. In K. A. Walters (Ed.), Dermatological and Transdermal Formulations (pp. 19-58). CRC Press.
[69] Wang, X., Liu, Q., Li, X., Zheng, X., Hommel, B., & Ma, K. (2025). Sadness Is Reduced by Virtual Hugging. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 17, e70007.
https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.70007
[70] Willemse, C. J. A. M., & van Erp, J. B. F. (2019). Social Touch in Human-Robot Interaction: Robot-Initiated Touches Can Induce Positive Responses without Extensive Prior Bonding. International Journal of Social Robotics, 11, 285-304.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-018-0500-9