Figure 4
From: Hedonic and autonomic responses in promoting affective touch
Experimental setting task progression and physiological responses. (a) Experimental setting: participants sat facing each other. Only the giver had a computer screen in front of him/her, showing trial-by-trial instructions. The giver promoted affective touch on the right arm of the receiver participant with his/her dominant hand while looking at him/her in the eyes (Touch + Eyes). The receiver was either his/her partner or a stranger played by a confederate. (b) Same format as in (a) but depicting the Eye Contact only condition (Eyes Only). (c) Task progression: each block consisted of 20 trials. The instructions presented on the screen had three different presentation times (5, 10 or 15 s), then at the end of the instructions a white cross appeared on the screen indicating the beginning of the experimental condition (i.e., Affective Touch + Eye Contact or Eye Contact only) and lasted for 36 s. After that, a VAS for pleasantness rating, ranging from −10 (unpleasant) to +10 (pleasant) was presented for 14 s, and followed by 5 s of inter-trial interval (ITI). (d) Z-scored mean EDA values during a mutual eye contact exchange (Eyes Only) and during and affective touch and eye contact (Touch + Eyes). (e) Z-scored mean EDA values during Eyes Only and Touch + Eyes separately for Stranger (light green) and Partner (light red). (f) Z-scored mean EDA values when Females (main plot) and Males (inset) engaged in a mutual eye contact exchange (Eyes Only) and in affective touch combined with an eye contact (Touch + Eyes) separately for the Stranger (light green) and the Partner (light red). (g) State anxiety variations after interacting with a Stranger (light green) and the Partner (light red). Values shown are the mean ± s.e.m. Significant results are indicated by asterisk * = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01; *** = p < 0.001.
