Physical contact in parent-infant relationship and its effect on fostering a feeling of safety

iScience

Hiromasa Funato¹  Sachine Yoshida² 

[1] Corresponding author;Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, Ota-ku, Tokyo 143-8540, Japan;

关键词: Biological sciences;    Neuroscience;    Behavioral neuroscience;    Sensory neuroscience;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Summary: The infant-caregiver relationship involves physical contact for feeding, moving, and other cares, and such contact also encourages the infant to form an attachment, an emotional bond with the caregivers. Physical contact always accompanies somatosensory perception, which is detected by mechanosensory neurons and processed in the brain. Physical contact triggers sensorimotor reflexes such as Transport Response in rodent infants, and calm human infants while being carried. Tactile sensation and deep pressure in physical interactions, such as hugging, can function as emotional communication between infant and caregiver, which can alter the behavior and mood of both the infant and caregiver. This review summarizes the findings related to physical contact between the infant and the caregiver in terms of pleasant, noxious, and neutral somatosensation and discusses how somatosensory perceptions foster a feeling of safety that is important for infant's psychosocial development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown