6月4日,，刊登在PNAS上的一篇文章中,，科研人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了社會和觸覺信息幫助人類大腦處理觸覺，這可能解釋了當(dāng)一個人提供的肉體愛撫被認為是有吸引力的或是可憎的時候所引發(fā)的矛盾的感受,。
Valeria Gazzola及其同事檢測了18位健康的異性戀男性在女性研究參與者輕柔地撫摸他們的腿的時候的大腦活動,。這些男性無法看到這些女性，但是認為撫摸者是有吸引力的女性或者是另一位男性,。在實驗期間讓這些男性觀看的錄像加強了這類信念,。
當(dāng)這些男性認為他們被一位有吸引力的女性撫摸的時候，他們的大腦的初級體感皮層比當(dāng)他們認為被一位沒有吸引力的男性撫摸的時候更活躍,，盡管事實上這種撫摸總是由同一人提供的,。盡管初級體感皮層曾經(jīng)被認為是客觀地呈現(xiàn)了皮膚的觸感，當(dāng)前這些發(fā)現(xiàn)表明這種呈現(xiàn)受到了接受者對撫摸者的看法的影響,。這組作者說,，這些結(jié)果提示初級體感皮層沒有此前認為得那樣客觀。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1073/pnas.1113211109
PMC:
PMID:
Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch
Valeria Gazzolaa,b,1, Michael L. Spezioc,d,1, Joset A. Etzela, Fulvia Castellie, Ralph Adolphsd,f,2, and Christian Keysersa,b,d,2
Another person’s caress is one of the most powerful of all emotional social signals. How much the primary somatosensory cortices (SIs) participate in processing the pleasantness of such social touch remains unclear. Although ample empirical evidence supports the role of the insula in affective processing of touch, here we argue that SI might be more involved in affective processing than previously thought by showing that the response in SI to a sensual caress is modified by the perceived sex of the caresser. In a functional MRI study, we manipulated the perceived affective quality of a caress independently of the sensory properties at the skin: heterosexual males believed they were sensually caressed by either a man or woman, although the caress was in fact invariantly delivered by a female blind to condition type. Independent analyses showed that SI encoded, and was modulated by, the visual sex of the caress, and that this effect is unlikely to originate from the insula. This suggests that current models may underestimate the role played by SI in the affective processing of social touch.
