Laboratory for the Study of Tactile Communication

Scientific results:

A research was conducted on the biological and social mechanisms that determine the emotional aspects of tactile perception. Several series of electrophysiological experiments were conducted with a total sample of 90 people. They were aimed at investigating the cortical response to different types of touch. The obtained results suggest that the interaction between discriminative and affective mechanoreceptive systems in the formation of a single tactile percept is much more pronounced than it has been assumed.

The semantics, pragmatics and semiotics of tactile communicative gestures of Russian linguoculture have been studied. 84 tactile communicative signals and 27 tactile gestures independently functioning in communication were identified, 468 lexical and phraseological figurative units representing metaphorical reinterpretation of situations of tactile interaction were revealed, the basic structure of the gesture “hug” was determined according to the data of the multimedia corpus of the National corpus of the Russian language MURKO, its semantic variation was characterized in detail.

The influence of communication conditions and morphological properties of touch on the acceptability of interpersonal touching in people of different linguocultures was studied. Questionnaires were developed in Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Uzbek languages, and a total of 504 responses were collected from respondents who were not native bearers of the Russian linguoculture and 220 responses from native ones. The study confirms the existence of both biological, cultural and social factors influencing the perception and acceptability of touching.

The concept of functional brain networks, a promising approach to studying brain activity, was developed and applied. This approach views the brain as a holistic system composed of interconnected areas. The unique patterns of functional connectivity determined using this approach allow us to understand brain activity during cognitive tasks and identify its normal and pathological states. However, the application of this approach is impossible without the development of special physical and mathematical methods and the development of a software package that implements the necessary functionality. For this purpose, within the framework of the present task, the development of physical and mathematical methods for the analysis of functional interactions in the brain neural network on the basis of EEG and fMRI signals during tactile stimulation of different intensity was carried out, and an open source software package implementing the developed functionality was created.

A biophysical model of the human C-tactile system was developed. Numerical methods and software were used to simulate the operation of the human C-tactile system under various control biophysical parameters. A multi-parameter bifurcation analysis of the dynamics of the developed model was carried out to identify the ranges of parameters corresponding to the operation of the human C-tactile system. A simulator of the biophysical model of the human C-tactile system was developed.

A therapy approach (including exercise sets, parent training materials, and parental involvement assessment tools) and protocols for a prospective study were developed. The developed rehabilitation approach involves engaging the mother in active participation in tactile therapeutic but nurturing interventions as the figure most significantly associated with the infant's healthy developmental trajectory. The assessment of the infant's socio-emotional sphere at an early age was tested on a sample of Russian infants. Methodological principles, description of the forms of tactile influence and parental training protocols that constitute the rehabilitation methodology were presented.

The results were approved at international symposia and published in highly rated peer-reviewed scientific publications included in international citation databases.

A scientific school-conference for young scientists “Cross-cultural aspects in communication: psychological, social, linguistic, tactile” was organized and held.

Implementation of research results:

During the Project implementation period (2022-2024) a number of outstanding fundamental results of the world level were obtained, which made possible deep understanding the processes occurring in the neural networks of the brain during the perception of tactile influence, and creating a stepping stone for practical implementation. A therapy approach (including exercise sets, parent training materials and parental involvement assessment tools) and protocols for a prospective study were developed as a result.

Education and personnel occupational retraining:

Two dissertations for the degree of Candidate of Sciences were prepared and defended:

• Shlotgauer E.A. Verbalization and metaphorization of tactile communicative signals in Russian language: a complex description. Moscow, 2023. Dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Philological Sciences in the specialty 5.9.5 - Russian language. Languages of the peoples of Russia. The defense took place 06.12.2023 in the Dissertation Council 24.2.292.01, created on the basis of the federal state budgetary educational institution of higher education “Pushkin State Institute of Russian Language”. Scientific supervisor - Doctor of Philology, Prof. E.A. Yurina.
• Kuts A.K. Influence of ambiguity of visual information on the processes of its processing in the neural network of the brain. Kaliningrad, 2023. Dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in the specialties 1.5.2 - Biophysics and 1.2.2 - Mathematical Modeling, Numerical Methods and Program Complexes. The defense took place on 25.12.2023 in the Dissertation Council 24.2.273.08, created on the basis of the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education “Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University”. Scientific supervisors - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences V.A. Maksimenko and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Prof. A.E. Khramov.

Prepared and defended one dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences: Portnova G.V. “Perception of biological and social components of emotionally significant stimuli in adults and children with different psychiatric and neurological pathology” Moscow, 2024. Specialty 1.5.5 - physiology of man and animals. The defense took place on 23.05.2024 in the Dissertation Council 24.1.023.01, established on the basis of the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Cooperation:

Federal State Budget Institution “Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences” - joint research in the field of electrophysiology. A study of massage perception by children of preschool and primary school age was conducted.

Research Institute of Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology of the Moscow Healthcare Department - joint research in the field of perception physiology. A series of studies on the peculiarities of tactile perception of stimuli of different strength with determination of brain activation by functional magnetic resonance tomography was conducted.