Does Tactile Stimulation of the Face Affect the Processing of Other Faces? Neural and Behavioural Effects of Facial Touch


Gülbetekin E., Bayraktar S., Kantar Gül D., Varlık Özsoy E., Er M. N., Altun E., ...Daha Fazla

SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.1-15, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 1 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/17470919.2023.2245126
  • Dergi Adı: SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Psycinfo
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-15
  • Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The integration of vision and touch is proposed as a critical factor for processing one's own body and the bodies of others in the brain. We hypothesise that tactile stimulation on an individual’s face may change the ability to process the faces of other, but not the processing of other visual images. We aimed to determine if facial touch increased the activity of the mirror system and face recognition memory of the observer. Therefore, mu suppression was measured to compare the effect of facial touch in performing two visual tasks. The participants observed faces and non-face visual images under two sets of conditions. In the first condition, a robotic finger touched the participant’s cheek while in the second condition, no touch occurred. Upon each observational task, the participants were given in a recognition test. Behavioural results indicated that facial touch improved recognition performance for faces, but not for non-face visual images. Tactile stimulation increased mu suppression in both occipital and central electrodes during face processing; however, the suppression did not significantly change during non-face visual processing. Our findings support the concept that the brain uses a self-body representation, as a reference to understand the mental states or behaviours of others.

 

Key words: Tactile stimulation, face processing, face recognition, mu suppression