The Touch and Neuropsychopharmacology Lab
The Touch and Neuropsychopharmacology lab, established in 2023 by Dr. Leehe Peled-Avron, operates within the Psychology Department and the Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University. Our research examines the significance of touch for well-being in both healthy and clinical populations. We are particularly interested in exploring the bidirectional effects of different types of therapy on touch perception and empathy. Additionally, we are interested in studying the effects of various substances, including psychedelics, on these phenomenas.
Featured Paper:
Understanding others through observed touch: neural correlates, developmental aspects, and psychopathology
Peled-Avron, L., & Woolley, J. D., 2022
Touch is an essential and powerful part of social interactions in humans. It is used to convey feelings and thoughts and aids in forming and maintaining social bonds throughout life. When we view others giving or receiving social touch, we automatically convert the sight of touch between others into an internal representation of touch and thus recognize, to some extent, what the other person is feeling. Nevertheless, the mechanisms through which this process occurs are just beginning to be elucidated. Here, we review the neural correlates that underpin observed touch perception, we discuss deficits in this ability in several psychopathologies and we review developmental studies that tackle this ability in the very early stages of infancy.
