Virtual Touch Modulates Perception of Pleasant Touch

Pleasant touch by gentle stroking is processed by C-tactile afferents, and important for emotional and social touch in human communication. We aimed to investigate the effects of visual touch in a virtual environment on the perception of pleasantness of tactile touch. Five velocities were used for the tactile brushing and virtual brushing (0.3 - 30 cm/s), and participants answered the perceived pleasantness of the tactile touch irrespective of visual stimulus. We found that the perception of pleasant touch was significantly modulated by the velocity of visual brushing. Thus, the pleasant touch would be perceived by integrating vision and tactile perception.