ABSTRACT

John Cacioppo and colleagues’ Somatovisceral Afference Model of Emotion (SAME) highlighted the importance of interoception in emotional experience. Here we compare how the SAME and the more recent theory of constructed emotion (TCE) view the role of interoceptive signals in creating emotional experiences. We describe the characteristics of touch sensations that are carried by thin, unmyelinated fibers called C-tactile afferents (CTs) to the posterior insula, and are thus deemed interoceptive despite their typically social (external) origin. We explore how this social interoceptive input might contribute to the emotion-related effects of social touch more generally, and speculate that all social touch, with or without CT afferent stimulation, can directly influence allostasis, or the predictive regulation of short- and long-term energy resources required by the body. Finally, we describe several features of CT-optimal touch that make it a potentially useful tool to help illuminate basic interoceptive mechanisms, emotion-related phenomena, and disorders involving atypical affect or somatosensation. These proposed ideas demonstrate the long intellectual reach of John Cacioppo and Gary Berntson’s highly productive scientific collaboration, which was formative for the fields of social neuroscience, social psychophysiology, and affective neuroscience.

摘要

John Cacioppo 及其同事的躯体内脏情感情感模型 (SAME) 强调了内感受在情感体验中的重要性。在这里，我们比较了 SAME 和最近的建构情绪理论 (TCE) 如何看待内感受信号在创造情绪体验中的作用。我们描述了由称为 C 触觉传入 (CTs) 的细无髓纤维传递到后岛叶的触觉特征，因此尽管它们通常具有社会（外部）起源，但仍被认为具有内感受性。我们探讨了这种社会内感受输入如何更普遍地促进社会接触的情绪相关影响，并推测所有社会接触，无论有或没有 CT 传入刺激，都可以直接影响动态平衡，或身体所需的短期和长期能量资源的预测调节。最后，我们描述了 CT 最佳触摸的几个特征，使其成为有助于阐明基本的内感受机制、情绪相关现象以及涉及非典型情感或躯体感觉的障碍的潜在有用工具。这些提议的想法展示了 John Cacioppo 和 Gary Berntson 高产的科学合作的长期智力影响，这对社会神经科学、社会心理生理学和情感神经科学领域具有重要意义。