Visual Deprivation Alters Parent-Specific Autonomic Tuning During Infancy

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Parents' touch regulates infants' physiology, and vision may be essential for identifying social partners, but whether the absence of visual feedback affects this physiological effect has never been tested. We examined whether visual deprivation alters infants' autonomic responses to affective touch from a parent versus a stranger. Eighteen infants aged 8–13 months (9 with peripheral visual impairment, 9 sighted) received slow stroking (3 cm/s) on the right shin while the parent or an unfamiliar adult sat in front of them as the apparent source of touch. Typically developing infants showed a larger heart-rate deceleration during parent than stranger touch. Infants with visual impairment did not differentiate between adults and showed higher heart-rate responses than typically developing infants in the parent condition (Group × Parent Identity interaction). Visual experience may help link affective touch to its social source. The small, clinical sample limits generalizability, and replication is needed.