The Touched Body and the Experience of Self.

Abstract

Slow caressing of the skin activates C-tactile fibers in the periphery and the posterior insula cortex. Because of this, Bud Craig considered affective touch to be an interoceptive modality. Through the tactile sense, we perceive the border of our own body and the largest of our organs, the skin. Whether or not C-targeted touch is considered interoceptive, it contributes fundamentally to the development and maintenance of the bodily self. This is supported by experimental data from cases, where somatosensory processing is altered, and the other way around, i.e., when the bodily sense of self is changed either pharmacologically or in psychiatric conditions. Self-touch can be seen as a special case contributing to the bodily self-model by providing high fidelity signals within a closed feedback loop. Social touch, especially between parents and children and between romantic partners, plays a crucial role in social allostasis and the co-regulation of physiology and emotions. Touch, both self-touch and social touch, should therefore be considered foundational for the bodily self and essential for mental and physiological well-being. Through touch, we perceive the self in its most basic form, as a social body.