Imaging affective and non-affective touch processing in two-year-old children

•Neural processing of affective and non-affective touch was studied in 2-year-olds.•Optical tomography was used to record cortical total haemoglobin responses.•Advanced modelling of light propagation increased the accuracy of localization.•Insula was activated more by affective than non-affective touch.•Post-central gyrus was activated more by non-affective than affective touch.