Longing for touch post-COVID-19: current observations and future directions.

Previous studies have reported an association between the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing regulations and longing for touch (LFT; i.e., a discrepancy between actual touch frequency and one's desire to be touched).

Intolerable feelings of uncertainty within the body: Associations between interoceptive awareness, intolerance of uncertainty, and body dissatisfaction.

Background: Adolescence is a period marked by important physical and social changes, which often leads to an increase of body dissatisfaction. Recent studies have shown an association between interoception and body dissatisfaction in female adolescents. One variable that may contribute to the association between interoceptive awareness and body dissatisfaction is intolerance of uncertainty (IU).

Longing for Touch and Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

To combat the spread of the COVID-19, regulations were introduced to limit physical interactions. This could induce a longing for touch in the general population and subsequently impact social, psychological, physical and environmental quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to investigate the potential association between COVID-19 regulations, longing for touch and QoL.

Affective touch perception and longing for touch during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interpersonal touch and affective touch play a crucial role in social interactions and have a positive influence on mental health. The social distancing regulations implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced the ability to engage in interpersonal touch. This could cause longing for touch, and it might subsequently alter the way in which affective touch is perceived.

Integration of predictions and afferent signals in body ownership.

We aimed at investigating the contribution of sensory predictions triggered by the sight of an object moving towards the body for the sense of body ownership. We used a recently developed psychophysical discrimination task to assess body ownership in the rubber hand illusion. In this task, the participants had to choose which of the two right rubber hands in view felt most like their own, and the ownership discriminations were fitted to psychometric curves.