Noli Me Tangere: Social Touch, Tactile Defensiveness, and Communication in Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Open accessAbstract
Tactile defensiveness is a common feature in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Since the first studies, tactile defensiveness has been described as the result of an abnormal response to sensory stimulation. Moreover, it has been studied how the tactile system is closely linked to socio-communicative development and how the interoceptive sensory system supports both a discriminating touch and an affective touch. Therefore, several neurophysiological studies have been conducted to investigate the neurobiological basis of the development and functioning of the tactile system for a better understanding of the tactile defensiveness behavior and the social touch of NDDs. Given the lack of recent literature on tactile defensiveness, the current study provides a brief overview of the original contributions on this research topic in children with NDDs focusing attention on how this behavior has been considered over the years in the clinical setting.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Tactile defensiveness can lead some autistic people to react physically, particularly when already anxious or overwhelmed.
“Tactile defensiveness can lead some autistic people to react physically, particularly when already anxious or overwhelmed (Smirni et al, 2019; Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2020)”
From Autistic SPACE: a novel framework for meeting the needs of autistic people in healthcare settings (2023) · cites this paper as Smirni et al, 2019
The Introduction defines tactile defensiveness as avoidance, withdrawal, or hyperresponsivity to touch, and the Discussion describes children avoiding physical contact. Section 7 links tactile sensitivity in autism to emotional difficulties, but the paper does not establish that physical reactions are particularly likely when a person is already anxious or overwhelmed. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA gentle touch that might soothe a non-autistic person might be intolerable to an autistic person, leading to a defensive or aggressive reaction.
“Where a non-autistic person might be soothed by a gentle touch, the same gesture might be intolerable to an autistic person, leading to a defensive or aggressive reaction (Smirni et al, 2019).”
From Autistic SPACE: a novel framework for meeting the needs of autistic people in healthcare settings (2023) · cites this paper as Smirni et al, 2019
The Introduction defines tactile defensiveness as avoidance or withdrawal from touch most people find non-threatening, and the Discussion says hyper-responsive children may overreact to ordinary touch. Section 6 describes gentle stroking as relaxing in a study of typically developing infants. These passages support the contrast and a defensive reaction, but not the claim that the touch may lead to aggression. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 85 · Cited by 41
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [45]Dunbar R. Dunbar R.I.M. Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA, USA 1998 0674363361
- Authors
- Smirni, D., Smirni, P., Carotenuto, M., Parisi, L., Quatrosi, G., & Roccella, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Palermo (IT)
- University of Catania (IT)
- University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (IT)
- Dipartimento Promozione della Salute, Materno-Infantile, di Medicina Interna e Specialistica di Eccellenza “G. D’Alessandro”, 90127 Palermo, Italy
- Corresponding author
- Smirni, Daniela
- Venue
- Brain Sciences
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-12-12
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 368
- ISSN
- 2076-3425 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6955721
- OpenAlex
- W2995401133
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 85
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 2.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Brain Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRIS UniPA (University of Palermo) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Keywords
- tactile defensiveness, social touch, neurodevelopmental disorders, sensory processing, interoception, affective touch, children
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
