Project description
How touch influences social processing and communication
As society becomes increasingly digital, human contact is decreasing, potentially increasing the burden of stress in human interaction. To address this issue, we need a clear understanding of how touch impacts social behaviour. The ERC-funded TOUCHNET project will develop a comprehensive database on 100 000 interpersonal touch events, focusing on their frequency, triggers and effects. It links touch to autonomic nervous system activity, social factors and health outcomes such as stress reduction. This research further aims to enhance our understanding of how touch influences social processing through fNIRS hyper-scanning and ultra high-field imaging. Ultimately, it will clarify the role of touch for individual stress reduction, social wiring and positive communication.
Objective
As the digital nature of society increases, the frequency of human contact decreases. This seemingly inevitable relationship has potentially devastating consequences for the mental and emotional health of billions of people. Clear understanding and appropriate action are the only path to mitigating this looming crisis.
Currently, the field of interpersonal touch research is a patchwork of theoretical frameworks and, worse still, lacks robust, ecologically valid experimental data. Objective One of TOUCHNET is to build a large database centered around interpersonal touch behavior: its frequency, triggers, and effects. A multi-center, ecological momentary assessment approach, will provide over 100000 individual touch events, connected to, in sub-sets, autonomous nervous system activity, questionnaires, social factors, and health (i.e. stress reduction). The TOUCHNET database itself will be a significant contribution to the field.
Objective Two will leverage this database to probe the mechanisms by which touch has its effects. Merging concepts and assumptions across affective touch and social brain theories, I will examine touch-generated networks (neural signatures) associated with social processing and stress reduction. Ultra-high field, touch-no-touch, imaging experiments will compare connectivity and the functional input-output relation within social and allostatic-interoceptive brain networks. Further the direct effect of touch on communication, namely synchronicity, will be examined through fNIRS hyper-scanning.
TOUCHNET will help clarify the role touch plays in society. A much-needed database of touch events will allow ecologically valid assessment across the field while detailed lab-based studies will advance our understanding of the interaction between touch, sociality, and stress. Finally, in an increasingly digital world, where touch substitutes may unfortunately be necessary, this work will take initial steps toward positive distance communication.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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07743 JENA
Germany
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