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PubMed2002

Infant gaze, head, face and self-touch at 4 months differentiate secure vs. avoidant attachment at 1 year: a microanalytic approach.

The study attempted to distinguish avoidant vs. secure infants at 1 year from 4-month infant behavior only, during a face-to-face play interaction with the mother. Thirty-five 4-month-old infants were coded second by second for infant gaze, head orientation, facial expression and self-touch/mouthing behavior. Mother behavior was not coded. At 1 year, 27 of these infants were classified as secure (B), and 8 as avoidant (A) attachment in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Compared with the B infant, the future A infant spent less time paying 'focused' visual attention (a look of a minimum 2 seconds duration) to the mother's face. Only if the A infant engaged in self-touch/mouthing behavior did its focused visual attention match that of the B. Markovian t to t+1 transition matrices then showed that both for future A and for future B infants, focused visual attention on the mother constrained the movements of the head to within 60 degrees from center vis-à-vis, defining head/gaze co-ordination within an attentional-interpersonal space. However, infant maintenance of head/gaze co-ordination was associated with self-touch/mouthing behavior for the A infant but not the B. Positive affect was associated with a disruption of head/gaze co-ordination for the A but not the B. Whereas the B had more variable facial behavior, potentially providing more facial signaling for the mother, the A had more variable tactile/mouthing behavior, changing patterns of self-soothing more often. Thus, infants classified as A vs. B at 12 months showed different behavioral patterns in face-to-face play with their mothers as early as 4 months.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

Temperature limit values for touching cold surfaces with the fingertip.

OBJECTIVES: At the request of the European Commission and in the framework of the European Machinery Directive, research was performed in five different laboratories to develop specifications for surface temperature limit values for the short-term accidental touching of the fingertip with cold surfaces. METHODS: Data were collected in four laboratories with a total of 20 males and 20 females performing a grand total of 1655 exposures. Each touched polished blocks of aluminium, stainless steel, nylon-6 and wood using the distal phalanx of the index finger with a contact force of 1.0, 2.9 and 9.8 N, at surface temperatures from +2 to -40 degrees C for a maximum duration of 120 s. Conditions were selected in order to elicit varying rates of skin cooling upon contact. Contact temperature (TC) of the fingertip was measured over time using a T-type thermocouple. RESULTS: A database obtained from the experiments was collated and analysed to characterize fingertip contact cooling across a range of materials and surface temperatures. The database was subsequently used to develop a predictive model to describe the contact duration required for skin contact temperature to reach the physiological criteria of onset of pain (15 degrees C), onset of numbness (7 degrees C) and onset of frostbite risk (0 degrees C). CONCLUSIONS: The data reflect the strong link between the risk of skin damage and the thermal properties of the material touched. For aluminium and steel, skin temperatures of 0 degrees C occurs within 2-6 s at surface temperatures of -15 degrees C. For non-metallic surfaces, onset of numbness occurs within 15-65 s of contact at -35 degrees C and onset of cold pain occurs within 5 s of contact at -20 degrees C. The predictive model subsequently developed was a non-linear exponential expression also reflecting the effects of material thermal properties and initial temperature. This model provides information for the protection of workers against the risk of cold injury by establishing the temperature limits of cold touchable surfaces for a broad range of materials, and it is now proposed as guidance values in a new international standard.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

pag-3, a Caenorhabditis elegans gene involved in touch neuron gene expression and coordinated movement.

Mutations in a newly identified gene, pag-3, cause ectopic expression of touch neuron genes meo-7, mec-7lacZ and mec-4lacZ in the lineal sisters of the ALM touch neurons, the BDU neurons. Pag-3 mutants also show a reverse kinker uncoordinated phenotype. The first pag-3 allele was isolated in a screen for mutants with altered immunofluorescence staining patterns. Two additional pag-3 alleles were identified in a noncomplementation screen of 38,000 haploid genomes. All of the pag-3 alleles were recessive to wild type and cause the same phenotypes. Two-factor crosses, deficiency mapping and three-factor crosses located pag-3 to the right arm of the X chromosome between unc-3 and unc-7. Because recessive mutations in pag-3 result in expression of several touch cell specific genes in the BDU neurons, pag-3(+) must directly or indirectly suppress expression of these genes in the BDU neurons. Although pag-3 mutants did not show mec-3lacZ expression in their BDU neurons, expression of mec-7lacZ and mec-4lacZ in the BDU neurons of pag-3 mutants required mec-3(+).

Alleles↗
PubMed1986

The effect of touch on nutritional intake of chronic organic brain syndrome patients.

Inadequate nutrition, a major cause of illness and complications among elderly adults, is of particular import for those who cannot provide for themselves. We evaluated the effect of gentle touch during eating on nutritional intake (NI) of 42 institutionalized chronic organic brain syndrome (COBS) patients. Patients were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. NI was evaluated for 3 consecutive weeks. During Weeks 1 and 3 all patients were encouraged verbally to eat. In the treatment week experimental group members were touched gently during this verbal encouragement. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to evaluate the effect of touch on NI. In the first week NI for the groups did not differ. NI was significantly greater in the experimental than in the control group (p less than .01) during the other 2 weeks. Tactile stimulation, a simple intervention, may be an important adjunct to verbal encouragement to improve NI in COBS patients.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

Attention to touch modulates activity in both primary and secondary somatosensory areas.

We used fMRI to establish whether attention to touch enhances somatosensory cortical activity. Subjects received somatosensory and visual stimulation and were instructed to attend selectively to one modality during alternating stimulus detection periods interspersed with rest periods during which no stimulus was delivered. The maximum signal change for each task versus rest was measured in anatomically defined regions of interest for each subject. Attended touch produced greater signal change than unattended touch in primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortex. In contrast to the conclusions of some previous studies, we found that the enhancement of activation with attention was at least as great in S1 as in S2. The attentional effect was unilateral in S1 and bilateral in S2 and the somatosensory insula.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Therapeutic touch, dialogue, and women's experiences in breast cancer surgery.

The article describes the development of a nursing intervention based on the science of unitary human beings that has the potential to help women have more positive experiences during the time of breast cancer surgery. The intervention, therapeutic touch and dialogue, is expected to result in decreased state anxiety and postoperative pain and a more positive affect balance. It is recommended that nurses maintain objective anecdotal records of their experiences with therapeutic touch and dialogue and that future research include randomized controlled clinical trials as well as studies to explore therapeutic touch's mechanism of action.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1996

Therapeutic touch: a healing modality.

Therapeutic touch is a nursing intervention pioneered more than 20 years ago. A substantial body of literature encompassing theory, clinical practice, and research exists on this energetic healing modality. This article examines the scientific basis for healing through the human energy field, including the basic assumptions from which therapeutic touch was developed and a summary of related research. It also discusses integration of therapeutic touch into clinical practice and identifies resources for further exploration.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1984

Therapeutic touch as energy exchange: testing the theory.

Previous investigators have suggested that the effects of therapeutic touch are the result of an energy exchange between the client and the nurse. In this investigation, the theory of energy exchange is viewed as part of the broader conceptual system proposed by Rogers. The theorem that the effects of therapeutic touch do not depend on actual physical contact is derived, tested, and supported via an experimental pretest-posttest design. Subjects treated with noncontract therapeutic touch demonstrated a significantly greater decrease in state anxiety than subjects treated with a mimic control intervention. Implications for further theory development are presented.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Wound healing with noncontact therapeutic touch used as an adjunct therapy.

Noncontact therapeutic touch is an effective adjunct therapy for wound healing that furthers the theoretic principle of therapeutic touch. The ET nurse's scientific-based, skilled experience could, if combined with sensitivity and compassion, escalate the patient's recovery through the intentionality of healing through the hands. Synoptic explanations of noncontact therapeutic touch and wound healing are followed by citations from published research.

Complementary Therapies↗
PubMed1997

Cytoplasmic free Ca2+ in Arabidopsis roots changes in response to touch but not gravity.

Changes in cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) have been proposed to be involved in signal transduction pathways in response to a number of stimuli, including gravity and touch. The current hypothesis proposes that the development of gravitropic bending is correlated with a redistribution of [Ca2+]i in gravistimulated roots. However, no study has demonstrated clearly the development of an asymmetry of this ion during root curvature. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the temporal and spatial changes in [Ca2+]i in roots of living Arabidopsis seedlings using ultraviolet-confocal Ca(2+)-ratio imaging and vertical stage fluorescence microscopy to visualize root [Ca2+]i. We observed no changes in [Ca2+]i associated with the graviresponse whether monitored at the whole organ level or in individual cells in different regions of the root for up to 12 h after gravistimulation. However, touch stimulation led to transient increases in [Ca2+]i in all cell types monitored. The increases induced in the cap cells were larger and longer-lived than in cells in the meristematic or elongation zone. One millimolar La3+ and 100 microM verapamil did not prevent these responses, whereas 5 mM EGTA or 50 microM ruthenium red inhibited the transients, indicating an intracellular origin of the Ca2+ increase. These results suggest that although touch responses of roots may be mediated through a Ca(2+)-dependent pathway, the gravitropic response is not associated with detectable changes in [Ca2+]i.

Arabidopsis↗
PubMed2000

Visual capture of touch: out-of-the-body experiences with rubber gloves.

When the apparent visual location of a body part conflicts with its veridical location, vision can dominate proprioception and kinesthesia. In this article, we show that vision can capture tactile localization. Participants discriminated the location of vibrotactile stimuli (upper, at the index finger, vs. lower, at the thumb), while ignoring distractor lights that could independently be upper or lower. Such tactile discriminations were slowed when the distractor light was incongruent with the tactile target (e.g., an upper light during lower touch) rather than congruent, especially when the lights appeared near the stimulated hand. The hands were occluded under a table, with all distractor lights above the table. The effect of the distractor lights increased when rubber hands were placed on the table, "holding" the distractor lights, but only when the rubber hands were spatially aligned with the participant's own hands. In this aligned situation, participants were more likely to report the illusion of feeling touch at the rubber hands. Such visual capture of touch appears cognitively impenetrable.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Quantitative research on therapeutic touch. An integrative review of the literature 1985-1995.

Quantitative research on Therapeutic Touch (TT), published in referred nursing journals from 1985 to 1995, is reviewed. Therapeutic Touch is defined by Dolores Krieger, the founder of this nursing intervention. The authors of this Integrative Review examine what is known and not known to date in order to facilitate appropriate application of this modality in practice, and to offer recommendations for future research. Critical characteristics of eleven quantitative studies are identified and analyzed. These characteristics include: author/year/journal/title; study purpose (hypotheses); background/literature review/conceptual citations; sample selection method; study design/random assignment; independent variable/length of treatment/control and confounders; dependent variables/measurements; outcomes; study limitations; and implications for future research. After reviewing the studies, it is concluded that there is evidence to support the practice of Therapeutic Touch for the reduction of pain or anxiety. There is clearly a lack of congruity between the research statement, conceptual framework, operational definition of TT and the findings. This incongruity is discussed and incorporated in the recommendations for future research including outcome, theory-generating and theory-testing research.

Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic↗
PubMed1990

Openness: a qualitative analysis of nurses' and patients' experiences of therapeutic touch.

The constant comparative method was used to generate a grounded theory explaining the process of therapeutic touch for seven nurses and seven patients. Interviews and observations of one treatment session each indicate that the primary experience of therapeutic touch is opening to the flow of the universal life energy. This includes three major categories of experience: (a) opening intent--allowing oneself to focus on getting the universal life energy moving again; (b) opening sensitivity--assessing the quality of its flow; and (c) opening communication--participating in a healing relationship that unblocks, engages and enlivens its movement. Further research on therapeutic touch using qualitative methodology may deepen our understanding of the inner experiences of both patients and nurses to experiences that facilitate the healing process.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Review of studies of healing touch.

PURPOSE: To review studies of healing touch and its implications for practice and research. DESIGN: A review of the literature from published works, abstracts from conference proceedings, theses, and dissertations was conducted to synthesize information on healing touch. Works available until June 2003 were referenced. METHODS: The studies were categorized by target of interventions and outcomes were evaluated. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: Over 30 studies have been conducted with healing touch as the independent variable. Although no generalizable results were found, a foundation exists for further research to test its benefits.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Vibrotactile sensitivity of slowly adapting type I sensory fibres associated with touch domes in cat hairy skin.

1. Recordings were made from single slowly adapting type I (SAI) afferent fibres associated with touch domes in the cat hairy skin. Controlled vibratory stimuli were used first, to characterize the precision with which these SAI afferents reflect the temporal aspects of vibrotactile stimuli, and second, to determine whether earlier disparate reports of SAI responsiveness to vibration may be attributable to highly specific stimulus requirements. 2. Eighteen SAI fibres from femoral cutaneous nerve branches were examined; each was associated with one to three touch domes. SAI responses to both steps and sinusoidal vibration (1-1.5 s in duration) were affected profoundly by both probe size and position. Punctate stimulus probes (250 microns) produced much higher response levels and steeper stimulus-response relations than those elicited with large (2 mm) probes, probably on account of focal distortion created within the dome by the smaller probes. SAI sensitivity to vibration was also affected markedly by the amplitude of any pre-indentation on which the vibration was superimposed; sensitivity was much lower when the pre-indentation exceeded 100 microns, in particular with larger stimulus probes. 3. Measures of both vibration sensitivity and the precision of impulse patterning demonstrated that, if appropriate stimulus parameters are chosen, the SAI fibres can respond to 1 s trains of vibration (amplitude < or = 100 microns) in a tightly phase-locked, 1:1 manner for frequencies up to 500 Hz. At frequencies from approximately 100-500 Hz the SAI fibres displayed broad 1:1 plateaus, where their response rate remained constant over a range of amplitudes, and phased-locking was tightest. Responses remained phase-locked up to 1000 Hz, but could not follow the vibration with a 1:1 pattern above 500 Hz. 4. The results demonstrate that with appropriate stimulus parameters, touch dome-associated SAI fibres are capable of signalling vibrotactile information over a similar bandwidth of frequencies as do Pacinian sensory fibres. The variability in past reports of SAI vibration sensitivity may relate principally to differences in stimulus conditions. However, in view of the SAI capacity for responding to vibration with temporally precise, patterned activity, it appears that their reported failure to contribute to vibrotactile sensibility must be attributed to limitations imposed in the central processing of SAI signals.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Effects of ageing on touch.

A decline in the main sensory modalities is well reported to occur with ageing. This article outlines the normal pathways involved in touch sensation and includes a review of available evidence relating to the study of ageing and touch. The authors try to use what is known about the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of ageing to explain the impact on some broad functional deficits seen in the elderly population. The importance of understanding how the normal ageing process affects touch sensation is emphasised.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Human tactile pattern recognition: active versus passive touch, velocity effects, and patterns of confusion.

1. Subjects without any previous experience in a tactile psychophysics task participated in a study of tactile letter recognition employing active and passive touch. In the active task, subjects reached through a curtain and examined embossed letters with horizontal, unidirectional finger strokes. In the passive task, subjects sat with their arms and hands immobilized while a rotating drum stimulator pressed the embossed letters onto the right index finger. The stimulus conditions in the passive task were identical to those used in neurophysiological experiments with monkeys. 2. A survey of 40 naive subjects who were not screened in any way showed a wide range of performance levels. There was no difference between the subjects in the active and passive tasks, either in overall mean percent correct scores, which were 49.0 and 50.7%, respectively or in the percent correct scores for individual letters whose product-moment correlation coefficient was 0.94. The active and passive groups, which contained 25 and 15 members, respectively, had no members in common. 3. Videotapes of the finger movements of eight subjects in the active task showed a characteristic V-shaped velocity profile (velocity vs. lateral position) starting at approximately 100 mm/s at the left-hand edge of the plate containing the embossed letter, decelerating to a minimum when the center of the finger was directly over the letter, and then accelerating away from the letter. The average minimum scanning velocity was 17 mm/s. 4. Scanning velocity had no significant effect on performance in the passive task between 20 and 40 mm/s. An increase to 80 mm/s produced a 16% decline in percent correct identifications. 5. Learning effects were evident across sessions even though subjects were given no feedback or training. The increase in mean percent correct judgments averaged 4% per session, which lasted for approximately 1 h. 6. Data from 64 subjects were pooled for detailed comparison of identification patterns in active and passive touch. The results were analyzed and found to be consistent with the hypothesis that the identification and confusion probabilities are identical in the two modes. We conclude that there is no difference between active and passive touch in form recognition when the stimulus pattern is smaller than a finger pad. 7. Data from all experiments were pooled to produce a single confusion matrix with 324 presentations per letter. The majority of erroneous responses are grouped in a small number of confusion pairs and the majority of those confusion pairs are strongly asymmetric. The probable neural mechanisms of some confusion patterns are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Selective spatial attention in vision and touch: unimodal and multimodal mechanisms revealed by PET.

Two positron-emission tomography (PET) experiments explored the neural basis of selective spatial attention in vision and touch, testing for modality-specific versus multimodal activations due to attended side. In the first study, either light flashes or finger vibrations were presented bilaterally. Twelve healthy volunteers were scanned while sustaining covert attention on the left or right hemifield within each modality. The main effect for attending right minus left, across both modalities, revealed bimodal spatial attention effects in the left intraparietal sulcus and left occipitotemporal junction. Modality-specific attentional effects (again, for attending right vs. left) were found in the left superior occipital gyrus for vision, and left superior postcentral gyrus for touch. No significant activations were seen for attending left minus right. The second study presented only tactile stimuli, manipulating whether the eyes were open or closed, and including passive stimulation and rest baselines. The unimodal activation for tactile spatial attention in the left superior postcentral gyrus was replicated. The bimodal activation of the left intraparietal sulcus observed in the first study was now found for touch, but only when the eyes were open (hands visible), apparently confirming its multimodal nature. These results reveal mechanisms of sustained spatial attention operating at both modality-specific and multimodal levels.

Adult↗