A growing body of evidence indicates that ecstasy, or ±3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) produces distinctive pro-social effects. MDMA is a popular recreational drug which purportedly produces feelings of empathy and interpersonal closeness. It has also been used therapeutically, where it enhances treatment for PTSD and social anxiety associated with autism when used in conjunction with psychotherapy [1, 2]. A number of controlled, double-blind studies have examined the behavioral effects of MDMA to identify the psychological and neural processes that underlie these effects, and distinguish it from other stimulant drugs [3,4,5]. For example, one consistent finding has been that MDMA decreases sensitivity to detecting negative emotions depicted in faces, while improving the ability to detect positive emotions. These two actions could facilitate both positive social interactions with strangers and interactions with a psychotherapist.

To fully understand the profile of social effects of a drug, it is of value to examine its effects on other basic modalities of social communication, aside from perceptions of visual stimuli. One modality that has received little attention is the sense of touch. Anecdotally, recreational MDMA users report that MDMA increases the pleasantness of social touch. In a recent study, we examined the acute effects of MDMA on responses to social, or affective, touch, in healthy young adults, under double blind conditions. Affective touch is touch that is experienced as hedonically pleasant, and has a known sensory pathway through activation of C-tactile afferents in the skin: slow stroking of the skin activates these afferents and is experienced as pleasurable, whereas faster stroking does not, and is not perceived as pleasant. Interestingly, the sensation of affective touch is thought to be mediated by both serotonin and oxytocin, which are also implicated in the behavioral actions of MDMA.

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