Keynote speakers
- Zhou-Feng Chen↵ earned his B.S. from Wuhan University, his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and completed his postdoctoral training at Caltech. In 2000, he joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine, where he founded the Center for the Study of Itch and Sensory Disorders and held the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Professorship. In 2023, he joined Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation.
Dr. Chen has made groundbreaking contributions to understanding somatosensory transduction at the spinal level. He was the first to discover itch-specific genes and circuits. More recently, he discovered a pivotal neuropeptide and spinal circuit encoding pleasant touch. His current research focuses on the brain circuits that regulate pleasant touch, and prosocial behavior.
How do you feel: molecular and neural mechanisms of pleasant touch sensation
Pleasant touch, manifesting in actions like hugging, embracing, and grooming, is fundamental to the well-being of social animals. However, it remains one of the least understood of somatosensory modalities. In this talk, I will explain the organizing principle by which pleasant touch sensation is encoded and distinguished from sensations with negative valence such as itch and pain. Our study indicates that the neuropeptide prokineticin (PROK2) in sensory neurons and a subset of the spinal interneurons defined by PROK2 receptor expression constitute a labeled line that encodes and conveys pleasant touch information. PROK2 mutant mice fail to engage in social grooming/licking, a primary form of affective social touch in rodents, resulting in anxiety and depressive-like behaviors. These mutant mice provide a unique animal model for exploring the mechanisms underlying the development of depressive-like behavior. I will further discuss how pain may paradoxically evoke pleasant sensations. Such crosstalk between sensory modalities significantly enhances our sensory, emotional, perceptual, and behavioral capabilities, which could be leveraged therapeutically to improve human health and well-being.
- Yoel Fink↵ holds a B.A. in Physics, a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Technion, and a Ph.D. from MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he is now also a Professor. Fink has devoted much of his career to answering one simple question “how sophisticated could a fiber be?”. In an attempt to answer this question he has co-authored more than 100 scientific articles and holds over fifty U.S. patents on multimaterial fibers, fabrics devices, and fabrics.
How sophisticated could a fiber be?
Fabrics cover a truly valuable tract of real estate – the surface of our bodies. Exposed to troves of data, important insights would be revealed if only fabrics could compute: sense, store, analyze, infer, alert, and act while retaining their aesthetics, comfort and resilience. My talk will focus on the development of a new class of computers, fiber-computers and discuss prospects for the transformation of fabrics into sophisticated computing and networked environments to deliver new insights and provide added value to humans.
- Patrick Haggard↵ leads the Action and Body research group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London.
The multiple aspects of self-touch
Our own body is the first object that we know, and we know it through a process of self-touch that begins long before birth. One body part touches another almost constantly. Sometimes, such self-touch is incidental (sitting with legs crossed), sometimes it is habitual or compulsive (face-touching, hair-pulling), sometimes it is clearly goal-directed and voluntary. Self-touch allows us to discover ourselves as an active subject, but also as a physical, space-occupying object like other objects. By active control of movement, one can explore and regulate one’s tactile sensations. The resulting integration of movement and tactile signals is thought to be an important enabler of a coherent self-consciousness. Despite these central roles of self-touch, experimental studies are rare – perhaps because it is difficult to intervene in the direct relation between movement and touch. We have developed a novel way of studying a laboratory analogue of self-touch by placing two haptic robots in a leader:follower configuration. The participant moves one robot with the right hand to synchronously stroke their left forearm with the other robot. By varying the gain of the spatial coupling between the robots, we have quantified the contributions of motor and tactile signals to spatial awareness of one’s own body. We have further shown that the act of stroking self-touch reaffirms and re-establishes a level of bodily self-awareness that can counteract disturbances of bodily awareness, such as those caused by altered visual input. Self-touch thus appears to be a key enabler of self-representation and self-awareness. These sensorimotor perspectives have important impacts for psychological functioning generally, and perhaps for mental health.
- Uta Sailer↵ obtained her master’s degree in psychology. She completed her doctorate in medical sciences at the University of Munich and qualified as a professor in 2009. Over the years, she held scientific positions in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Norway, each adding a unique perspective to my research. She currently serves as a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research takes a biopsychosocial perspective on touch as a form of social interaction and the broader landscape of social processes like support and loneliness.
The Purpose and Efficacy of Touch: Exploring Goals and Determinants in Human Interaction
Touch plays a fundamental role in human interaction, functioning as a sophisticated signaling system that shapes both immediate responses and long-term relationships. This talk examines touch through the lens of goal direction – the conscious and unconscious objectives we aim to achieve through tactile interaction.
The presentation analyses some primary domains of touch effects: emotional state modulation, behavioral adaptation, and social bond formation. I examine how touch influences pleasantness and positive affect, with particular attention to mediating variables, e.g. variety. The impact of touch, for example regarding stress reduction, is discussed within the framework of ecological validity and partner dynamics. Throughout the talk I draw on concepts from different fields such as psychology, sociology and biology. This integrated approach provides insights into how touch achieves its varied purposes in human interaction.