Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration

Abstract Infants’ social touch with caregivers has been considered a means of regulating infant physiological and emotional state. In non-human mammals, such regulatory function also facilitates exploration behavior. However, the types in human mother–infant interaction that contribute to specific behavioral responses toward people objects remain unclear. Using pre- post-task design, this study investigated effects during interactions on infants’ subsequent preferential looking at stimuli, engagement strangers, object exploration. Between tasks, mothers infants spent time playing one two conditions, More Physical Contact or Less Contact. We found Condition showed greater decrease evasive behavior stranger enhanced than those Condition. Conversely, did not affect static images. Among touch, frequency affectionate reduced facilitated These results suggest especially interactions, assist modulation behaviors