Atypical Development of Tactile Processing

Tactile processing is of tremendous importance during development. Touch is one of the first senses to develop, and is even active prenatally. Touch allows children not only to explore the physical world, but also to form social bonds. Both atypical touch perception and the absence of touch in early development have been linked to poor social development. In particular, difficulties in tactile perception and processing have been established in neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder, and recent studies show an impact on the core symptoms of those conditions. Tactile difficulties have been examined in neurodevelopment using a variety of approaches including psychophysics, questionnaires, and brain imaging, examining touch at different conceptual levels. While the link between these levels is increasingly being studied, each informs a different aspect of atypical touch perception. Here, we summarize the different approaches used to examine touch in developmental conditions, including observational, dimensional, psychophysical, and neuroimaging work, and discuss the limitations of these approaches.