The impact of daily affective touch on cortisol levels in institutionalized & fostered children.

Autor: Nikolaeva EI; Herzen State pedagogical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation; Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation., Dydenkova EA; Minin University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation; Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation. Electronic address: dydenkovaea@std.mininuniver.ru., Mayorova LA; Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation; Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russian Federation., Portnova GV; Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation; Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Physiology & behavior [Physiol Behav] 2024 Apr 01; Vol. 277, pp. 114479. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 01.
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114479
Abstrakt: Institutionalized children are often deprived of affective touch. Such tactile deprivation often leads to constant stress, as measured by the levels of salivary cortisol. We report here the impact of an affective touch program, optimized to activate a specific population of unmyelinated mechanosensitive nerves in the skin called c-tactile afferents (CT) on stress resistance. Two populations of children (age 4-10) were recruited: (i) a cohort living in an orphanage and (ii) a fostered cohort. Both groups received the affective touch program daily for 10-15 min for 5-6 weeks. A cohort of age-matched children living in a family environment acted as a control group and did not receive any instructions for tactile stimulation. Salivary cortisol was collected at the beginning (T1) and at the end (T2) of the study in all three groups. For institutionalized and fostered children there was a significant improvement in the level of cortisol (p < 0.0001) between T1 and T2, which is manifested in the balancing cortisol levels: a decrease where it was elevated and an increase, where the critically low level testified to the distress of the child. Balancing cortisol levels is a process of recovery to normal values, which indicates the restoration of neurohumoral mechanisms of stress regulation. The effect of balancing cortisol levels was more pronounced in the group of fostered children compared to the group of orphanage children (p = 0.0326). The children in the control group had no significant differences.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None.
(Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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