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NCT Number: NCT05768685

The Experience of Affective Touch in Obesity

The aim of the present research is to verify if the pleasantness of affective touch is comparable between women with obesity and healthy women, while measuring the level of social anhedonia and the lifespan experience of affective touch.

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Key information

Conditions

Obesity Anhedonia Body Weight Nervous System Diseases Neurobehavioral Manifestations Neurologic Manifestations Nutrition Disorders Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Overnutrition Overweight Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year–50 year

Sex eligibility

Female

Study type

Observational

Primary location

IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano - Ospedale San Giuseppe

Piancavallo, VCO, 28824, Italy

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • right-handed;
  • diagnosis of obesity (i.e., the level of body mass index (BMI( greater than or equal to 30).

Exclusion criteria

  • Concurrent neurological, neurodevelopmental (e.g., autism), motor, somatosensory and/or psychiatric disorders
  • Evidence of any skin-related condition possibly affecting sensitivity on the participants' forearm (e.g., eczema, scars).

Treatment and study plan

Affective touch paradigm

Behavioral

Affective touch paradigm: experimental stimuli will include the touch of a soft cosmetic, a hand, which will be both expected to resemble affective pleasant stimulations, and a plastic stick with a rounded tip, as a control (non-affective) condition. Two speeds of stimulation will be adopted i) slow affective stimuli delivered at 3 cm/s and fast non-affective stimuli, delivered at non-optimal speed (18 cm/s). An imagery version of the task will be also administered: blindfolded participants will be asked to image the touches on their left forearm. After each (actual or imagined) tactile stimulus, individuals will rate the experience level of pleasantness. As part of the protocol, they will fill out two psychological questionnaires, assessing the level of social anhedonia and the amount and characteristics of the lifespan experiences of affective touch inclose relationships.

Primary outcomes

  1. Rating of subjective pleasantness

    Time frame: baseline

    Behavioural outcome associated with the experimental paradigm: participants will be asked to rate the pleasantness of the tactile stimuli after each stimulation with a score ranging from zero not pleasant at all) to 100 (extremely pleasant).

Secondary outcomes

  1. Social anhedonia score

    Time frame: baseline

    Social anhedonia will be evaluated with the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS, Gooding and Pflum, 2014); this is a 17-item self-report measure of individuals' tendency to look forward to interactions with others (anticipatory interpersonal pleasure - 7 items) and experienced pleasure in social interactions (consummatory interpersonal pleasure - 10 items). The ACIPS is scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (very false for me) to 6 (very true for me); higher scores indicate higher anticipatory and consummatory interpersonal pleasure.

  2. Affective experience score

    Time frame: baseline

    The lifespan experience of affective touch in close relationships will be assessed with the Tactile Biography questionnaire (TBIO, Beltrán et al., 2020). This includes a 29-item self-report measure scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (e.g., not at all true for me) to 5 (e.g., extremely true) that evaluate four independent components: the frequency of and satisfaction for affective touch i) in childhood/adolescence and ii) adulthood, iii) comfort with and iv) fondness for interpersonal touch in close relationships

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Istituto Auxologico Italiano

Other

Registry information

Official study title

The Experience of Affective Touch in Obesity: the Role of Social Anhedonia and Lifespan Experiences

Acronym: AffTouch_OB

Important dates

Study start
2021
Primary completion
2024
Study completion
2024
First posted
Mar 14, 2023
Registry last updated
Aug 26, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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