Neuroscience And Biobehavioral Reviews 34 (2010) 237–245

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 34 (2010) 237–245

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Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/neubiorev

Review

The affective and cognitive processing of touch, oral texture, and temperature in the brain
Edmund T. Rolls *
University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology, South ParksRoad, Oxford OX1 3UD, England, UK

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Affective touch Temperature Cognitive modulation Attention Biassed competition Taste Fat texture Pleasure Emotion

Some of the principles of the representation of affective touch in the brain are described. Positively affective touch and temperature are represented in parts of the orbitofrontal and pregenualcingulate cortex. The orbitofrontal cortex is implicated in some of the affective aspects of touch that may be mediated through C fibre touch afferents, in that it is activated more by light touch to the forearm (a source of C-tactile (CT) afferents) than by light touch to the glabrous skin of the hand. Oral somatosensory afferents implicated in sensing the texture of food including fat in themouth also activate the orbitofrontal and pregenual cingulate cortex, as well as the insular taste cortex. Top–down cognitive modulation of the representation of affective touch produced by word labels is found in parietal cortex area 7, the insula and ventral striatum. The cognitive labels also influence activations to the sight of touch and also the correlations with pleasantness in the pregenualcingulate/orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum. ß 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The representation of positively affective touch and temperature in the brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-tactile (CT) afferents and light touch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cognitive modulation of affective touch processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Activations to the sight of touch, and cognitive modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oral texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oral temperature representations in the brain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 239 239 240 243 244 244 244

The aim of this paper is to consider the principles of the representation of positively affective touch and temperature in the brain, and the ways in which cognitive factors influence the representation of touch in the brain. Touch can be a primary(unlearned) reinforcer, and as a goal for action, is one of the foundations of emotion and motivation (Rolls, 2005). By positively affective touch is meant touch that is a reward, i.e. it will be worked for, and is rated as pleasant by humans. By negatively affective touch is meant touch that is a punisher, i.e. work will be performed

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