Physiological Responses to Affective Tele-Touch during Induced Emotional Stimuli

Abstract

The human touch has long been recognized to promote physical, emotional, social, and spiritual comfort. There are situations, however, when touch cannot be exchanged. Although mobile phones and web-based communication are ubiquitous, touch-a communication modality that conveys powerful messages-is inexistent in modern communications media. This paper describes a tele-touch device that transfers affective touch to another person through the internet. Commands for vibration, warmth, and tickle were sent over the internet to a haptic device at the subjects' forearm. With a heart rate (HR) monitor and a galvanic skin response (GSR) sensor, the physiological effect of the tele-touch device was evaluated as the subjects watched an emotionally-laden movie. We compared these to one group of subjects who were touched by their spouse or girlfriend and to subjects of a control group where no touch was provided. Results show that the HR of the subjects with the tele-touch device was not significantly different from those subjects who were touched by their loved ones. These results were in contrast to the subjects who were not provided with any form of touch. On the other hand, the GSR results revealed that all the three touch conditions were different from one another.