Affective touch refers to physical contact that conveys social and emotional significance, typically expressed through gentle tactile behaviors such as stroking, patting, hugging and hand-holding. It serves not only as a medium of social interaction and emotional expression but also plays a key role in emotional regulation, stress reduction, and social bonding. Unlike discriminative touch, affective touch is primarily encoded through C-tactile fibers (CT fibers) in the skin, which evokes neural responses in the insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and reward-related brain regions. These processes contribute to the integrated evaluation of tactile pleasantness, emotional significance, and social meaning. As the pace of modern life accelerates and digital communication becomes increasingly prevalent, opportunities for interpersonal physical contact are decreasing, while emotional stress and mental health challenges continue to rise. Consequently, affective touch has attracted growing attention in fields such as mental health interventions and affective computing. Systematically reviewing advances in affective touch research is crucial for deepening theoretical understanding and advancing interdisciplinary applications.

This paper reviews recent advances in affective touch research and analysis its physiological mechanisms at three levels: tactile afferent mechanisms, central neural processing pathways, and the evaluation of emotional and meaning. At the peripheral level, it highlighting the critical role of low-threshold cutaneous mechanoreceptors and C-tactile fibers in encoding affective touch, while elucidating the differences between affective and discriminative touch in terms of perceptual characteristics and information-processing targets. At the level of the central nervous system, the review examines the processing and integration of affective touch signals in the brain, focusing on the roles of regions such as the insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and secondary somatosensory cortex in emotional experience, social cognition, and autonomic regulation. Finally, it summarizes the functional significance of affective touch in emotion regulation and social interaction, including its role in enhancing trust, promoting prosocial behaviors, and alleviating anxiety and stress.

Beyond its physiological and psychological mechanisms, this paper also reviews research recent advances in the clinical and technological applications of affective touch. In clinical and mental health contexts, accumulating evidence indicates that affective touch interventions can improve emotional well-being among individuals with anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, while facilitating social interaction skills. In the field of affective computing, recent advancements in haptic feedback technologies, flexible electronics, and smart wearable devices have enabled the simulation of affective touch through vibration, pressure, temperature, and soft pneumatic actuation. These technologies support emotional interaction in virtual reality, social robotics, and remote interpersonal communication. They not only enhance immersion in virtual environments but also provide novel technological approaches for remote social support and emotional companionship.

To conclude, research on affective touch is expanding from fundamental neural mechanisms to applied domains such as mental health interventions and intelligent interaction, highlighting substantial interdisciplinary potential. However, the field faces several significant challenges. For instance, most current studies are based on short-term experimental settings, with limited evidence regarding the long-term effects of affective touch in real-life contexts. Moreover, substantial individual differences in tactile sensitivity, emotional states, and social experiences highlight the need for more personalized affective touch strategies. Additionally, future research should further develop multimodal emotional interaction technologies, integrating tactile information with visual, auditory, and physiological feedback to build more natural and authentic human-machine emotional interaction systems.

In summary, affective touch serves not only as a vital means of emotional expression in human social interactions but also as a crucial bridge between neurophysiological mechanisms to emotional experiences. By systematically reviewing its physiological foundations, psychological functions, and technological applications, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework for affective touch research and identify future directions in fields such as mental health interventions, human-computer interaction, and affective computing.