TY - JOUR
T1 - Touch and social support influence interpersonal synchrony and pain
AU - Reddan, Marianne C.
AU - Young, Hannah
AU - Falkner, Julia
AU - López-Solà, Marina
AU - Wager, Tor D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - Interpersonal touch and social support can influence physical health, mental well-being and pain. However, the mechanisms by which supportive touch promotes analgesia are not well understood. In Study 1, we tested how three kinds of social support from a romantic partner (passive presence, gentle stroking and handholding) affect pain ratings and skin conductance responses (SCRs). Overall, support reduced pain ratings in women, but not men, relative to baseline. Support decreased pain-related SCRs in both women and men. Though there were no significant differences across the three support conditions, effects were largest during handholding. Handholding also reduced SCRs in the supportive partner. Additionally, synchronicity in couples' SCR was correlated with reductions in self-reported pain, and individual differences in synchrony were correlated with the partner's trait empathy. In Study 2, we re-analyzed an existing dataset to explore fMRI activity related to individual differences in handholding analgesia effects in women. Increased activity in a distributed set of brain regions, including valuation-encoding frontostriatal areas, was correlated with lower pain ratings. These results may suggest that social support can reduce pain by changing the value of nociceptive signals. This reduction may be moderated by interpersonal synchrony and relationship dynamics.
AB - Interpersonal touch and social support can influence physical health, mental well-being and pain. However, the mechanisms by which supportive touch promotes analgesia are not well understood. In Study 1, we tested how three kinds of social support from a romantic partner (passive presence, gentle stroking and handholding) affect pain ratings and skin conductance responses (SCRs). Overall, support reduced pain ratings in women, but not men, relative to baseline. Support decreased pain-related SCRs in both women and men. Though there were no significant differences across the three support conditions, effects were largest during handholding. Handholding also reduced SCRs in the supportive partner. Additionally, synchronicity in couples' SCR was correlated with reductions in self-reported pain, and individual differences in synchrony were correlated with the partner's trait empathy. In Study 2, we re-analyzed an existing dataset to explore fMRI activity related to individual differences in handholding analgesia effects in women. Increased activity in a distributed set of brain regions, including valuation-encoding frontostriatal areas, was correlated with lower pain ratings. These results may suggest that social support can reduce pain by changing the value of nociceptive signals. This reduction may be moderated by interpersonal synchrony and relationship dynamics.
KW - Pain
KW - Social support
KW - Synchrony
KW - Touch
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U2 - 10.1093/scan/nsaa048
DO - 10.1093/scan/nsaa048
M3 - Article
C2 - 32301998
AN - SCOPUS:85091930148
SN - 1749-5016
VL - 15
SP - 1064
EP - 1075
JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
IS - 10
ER -