Infant neuronal and cardiac responses to maternal versus stranger's touch

• Grant number: 23/12250-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: November 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Alexandra Caldas Osório
• Grantee: Camila Fragoso Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM). Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/06693-4 - The importance of social touch for infant social-emotional development: integrating neuroimaging, psychophysiological, endocrine, and behavioral evidence, AP.JP2
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/04991-9 - The Role of Touch in Mother-Infant Neural Synchrony, BE.EP.DD

Abstract

Evidence in adults suggest that neural and behavioral responses to touch vary as a function of the perceived identity of the toucher (Gazzola et al., 2012; Suvilehto, Glerean, Dunbar, Hari, & Nummenmaa, 2015). Research on infants is significantly scarcer, with only one study published to date. In their seminal work, Aguirre et al. assessed the heart rate of 9-month-old infants in two conditions: a) soft brush strokes administered in the presence of the mother, b) the same type of touch administered in the presence of an unfamiliar female. Interestingly, the authors found a reduction in heart rate only in response to touch perceived as coming from the mother (Aguirre, Couderc, Epinat-Duclos, & Mascaro, 2019). However, the influence of the toucher's identity on cardiac reactivity to touch by hand (instead of by an object) and the neuronal responses to touch perceived as coming from the mother (vs. an unfamiliar female) in the first year of life - a critical stage in the formation of the attachment relationship - remain unknown. This is the main aim of this project. (AU)