About this Research Topic

Background

Affiliative touch is a form of interpersonal contact that involves slow gestures, such as caressing. This type of touch produces pleasurable sensations due to increased production of oxytocin and endorphins, which motivate a child to form and maintain interpersonal attachments with the caregiver and the social group of infancy. Additionally, it is important in mitigating the harmful effects of both acute and chronic trauma, as it reduces the production of stress hormones, making it an essential factor in the anti-stress axis.

Affiliative touch is associated with interoception, embodiment and ownership. The interoceptive centres of the brain activated by affiliative touch interact with the exteroceptive centres, allowing the inner world to be distinguished from the outer world and helping to define the boundaries of the self. Affiliative touch is involved in regulating the sense of self by contributing to homeostasis through its ability to modulate the body's major adaptive systems.

Adverse childhood experiences can disrupt the sense of self and the adaptive systems that help protect the self. This can affect neurotransmission and lead to a range of mental health problems including PTSD, bipolar disorder, psychosis, personality disorders, eating disorders and substance abuse. Affiliative touch has the potential to regulate altered neurotransmission and may help to mitigate the harmful effects of adverse childhood experiences on adult mental health. Innovative therapeutic approaches based on affiliative touch could therefore repair and balance various adaptive and homeostatic processes of the self, such as attachment, stress/anti-stress axis, embodiment, ownership, sense of self and boundaries of the self.

Despite the great potential of the therapeutic use of affiliative touch, most people with psychological problems caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences are treated only with drugs that temporarily modify neurotransmission. The purpose of this research topic is to strengthen the theoretical foundations of affiliative touch and to review recent advances in innovative treatments based on affiliative touch.

This Research Topic aims to bring together the latest theoretical and clinical advances on affiliative touch and the sense of self in order to promote the use of affiliative touch in both the prevention and treatment of mental disorders such as PTSD, bipolar disorder, depressive disorders, psychosis, eating disorders, personality disorders and addictions.

We invite submissions in the following research areas:
- Origins of Affective Touch
- Affiliative touch during pregnancy
- Affiliative touch and the Stress Axis
- Affiliative touch and protective experiences in childhood
- Affiliative touch, ownership, embodiment, sense of self
- Affiliative touch and boundaries of the self
- Affiliative touch, C-tactile receptor, interoception
- Treatment of mental illness based on affiliative touch and sense of self
- Mental health prevention based on affiliative touch
- Affiliative touch, sense of self and well-being
- Affiliative touch, sense of self and psychophysical health

We welcome Brief Research Report, Case Report, Clinical Trial, Conceptual Analysis, Correction, Data Report, Editorial, General Commentary, Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective, Registered Report, Review, Systematic Review, Technology and Code.

Keywords: affiliative touch, sense of self, innovative treatments, psychosis, interoception, stress axis, attachment, identification and differentiation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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