Cuddling as a Form of Social Touch and Its Role in Early Cognitive Development

Children’s understanding that others’ mental states influence their actions develops rapidly during early childhood (Sabbagh & Bowman, 2018). This ability, known as theory of mind (ToM), is linked to the social brain, a network of neural regions that become active when humans interpret and respond to their social environment (Brauer et al., 2017). As these parts of the brain develop, so too do young children’s ToM skills (Sabbagh et al., 2009). Yet, little is known about what influences healthy development of these regions. Although many environmental factors may have importance, one that is particularly intriguing is affectionate contact or “social touch.” Social touch is a context-dependent form of affective touch (Cascio et al., 2018). It stimulates C-tactile afferents, unmyelinated fibers on hairy skin that respond to slow affective touch (e.g., patting or stroking) and has been linked to healthy brain development in infants and young children (Cascio et al., 2018). Recent research has shown that social touch is associated with increased activities in neural regions linked to the social brain (Croy et al., 2021; Gothard & Fuglevand, 2021). These findings suggest that a key factor pacing children’s ToM development is their exposure to social touch. Previous research has observed cuddling, a form of affective touch, to be associated with children’s improved ToM performance. However, it is unclear whether these effects are linked to neural mechanisms involving ToM. Using electroencephalogram (EEG), this study investigates whether cuddling with a parent affects activity in regions of the social brain in 3-to-5-year-old children. Over the summer, twelve participants completed a pilot study. Participants were randomly assigned to cuddle or no-cuddle conditions while resting-state EEG was recorded before and after a storybook task. Children then completed games assessing ToM. Data collection will begin in the fall to further examine cuddling’s effects on children’s cognitive development. References Brauer, J., Xiao, Y., Poulain, T., Friederici, A. D., & Schirmer, A. (2017). Frequency of maternal touch predicts resting activity and connectivity of the developing social brain. Cerebral Cortex, 28(2), 692. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx323 Cascio, C. J., Moore, D., & McGlone, F. (2018). Social touch and human development. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 35, 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2018.04.009 Croy, I., Fairhurst, M. T., & McGlone, F. (2021). The role of C-tactile nerve fibers in human social development. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 20–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.06.010 Gothard, K. M., & Fuglevand, A. J. (2021). The role of the amygdala in processing social and affective touch. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 46–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.08.004 Sabbagh, M. A., Bowman, L. C., Evraire, L. E., & Ito, J. M. B. (2009). Neurodevelopmental correlates of theory of mind in preschool children. Child Development, 80(4), 1147–1162. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01322.x Sabbagh, M. A., & Bowman, L. C. (2018). Theory of mind. Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119170174.epcn408