Comforting touch involves contact distress-alleviating behaviors of an observer towards the suffering of a target. A growing number of studies have investigated the effects of touch on pain attenuation, focusing on the (toucher), the target (comforted) or both. Here we synthesize findings of brain mechanisms underlying comforting touch in the target and toucher to propose an integrative brain model for understanding how touch attenuates distress. Building on evidence from the pain and distress literatures, our model applies interchangeably to pain and distress regulation. We describe comforting touch as a feedback-loop that begins with distress experienced by the target, triggering an empathic response in the toucher which in turn reduces distress in the target. This cycle is mediated by interactions between the neural circuits associated with touch perception, shared distress, emotion regulation and reward as well as brain-to-brain coupling in the observation-execution system. We conclude that formulating a model of comforting touch offers a mechanistic framework for understanding the effects of touch as well as other social interactions involving social support.

安慰性触摸涉及观察者对目标痛苦的接触减轻痛苦的行为。越来越多的研究调查了触摸对减轻疼痛的影响，重点是（触摸者）、目标（舒适）或两者。在这里，我们综合了目标和触摸者舒适触摸背后的大脑机制的发现，以提出一个综合的大脑模型来理解触摸如何减轻痛苦。基于疼痛和痛苦文献的证据，我们的模型可互换地适用于疼痛和痛苦调节。我们将安慰性触摸描述为一个反馈循环，从目标经历的痛苦开始，触发触摸者的移情反应，从而减少目标的痛苦。这个循环是由与触觉感知、共同痛苦、情绪调节和奖励以及观察-执行系统中的大脑到大脑耦合相关的神经回路之间的相互作用所介导的。我们得出的结论是，制定安慰性触摸模型提供了一个机制框架，用于理解触摸以及其他涉及社会支持的社会互动的影响。