Lecturer: Dr. Rebecca Böhme
Fields: Neuroscience, Psychology, Philosophy
Content
Social touch is one of the earliest ways to experience the own body and the presence of others in the world around us. Therefore, the social other is inherently intertwined with our bodily self perception. Despite the primacy of touch as a social communication channel, social touch has not received much attention in neuroscientific and psychological research. While vision and audition – both distance senses – are by now quite well understood, the tactile sense and especially its social aspects are being investigated in more depth only in recent years.
In this course, we will discuss the neurobiological processing of tactile perceptions, social tactile communication, the contribution of social touch to perceiving the own body and to developing a sense of self, and philosophical and ethical implications with a special focus on the covid pandemic and on the digitalization of social interactions. It will incorporate different teaching formats (lecture, group work, practical experience for those comfortable with touch to the arms).
Literature
- Ciaunica, A., Constant, A., Preissl, H., & Fotopoulou, K. (2021). The first prior: from co-embodiment to co-homeostasis in early life. Consciousness and cognition, 91, 103117.
- Boehme, R., Hauser, S., Gerling, G. J., Heilig, M., & Olausson, H. (2019). Distinction of self-produced touch and social touch at cortical and spinal cord levels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(6), 2290-2299.
- Boehme, R., & Olausson, H. (2022). Differentiating self-touch from social touch. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 27-33.
- Boehme, R., Karlsson, M. F., Heilig, M., Olausson, H., & Capusan, A. J. (2020). Sharpened self-other distinction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. NeuroImage: Clinical, 27, 102317.
- Fotopoulou, A., & Tsakiris, M. (2017). Mentalizing homeostasis: The social origins of interoceptive inference. Neuropsychoanalysis, 19(1), 3-28.
- Frost-Karlsson, M., Capusan, A. J., Perini, I., Olausson, H., Zetterqvist, M., Gustafsson, P. A., & Boehme, R. (2022). Neural processing of self-touch and other-touch in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum condition. NeuroImage: Clinical, 103264.
- Fuchs, T. (2011). The brain–A mediating organ. Journal of Consciousness studies, 18(7-8), 196-221.
- McGlone, F., Wessberg, J., & Olausson, H. (2014). Discriminative and affective touch: sensing and feeling. Neuron, 82(4), 737-755.
Lecturer
Dr. Rebecca Böhme is an assistant professor and principle investigator at the Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience in Linköping, Sweden. She is interested in how we establish a bodily self, how we connect with each other, and what happens to the self in psychiatric conditions. Her labs studies body perception and self-other-distinction in states of an altered sense of self. Dr. Böhme studied at Heidelberg University and at the Max Planck research school in Tübingen. For her PhD at Humboldt University & Charité Berlin, she received the For Women in Science Award.
Affiliation: Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Linköping University
Homepage: https://rebeccaboehme.com/