Founded in 2015, the International Association for the Study of Affective Touch (IASAT) is a scientific society dedicated to advancing research on affective touch — the social, emotional, and hedonic aspects of tactile experience.
The IASAT community is interdisciplinary and international, bringing together researchers, academics, clinicians and practitioners working across psychology, neuroscience, medicine, engineering, social sciences, and therapeutics.
IASAT members host regular international meetings, including our biennial conference. Most recently, we convened in Jena, Germany for IASAT2025
IASAT welcomes members from around the world who share an interest in the science of affective touch and its implications for research, practice, and society.
“…the skin is a site of the events and processes crucial to the way we think about, feel about, and interact with one another…”
Morrison I., Löken L. S., Olausson H. (2010)
The festival organisers and IASAT committee were saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Vincent Hayward in Paris on 10th May 2023. Vincent was a pioneer in the field of Haptics and tactile perception. Read more…
It’s been a while since we’ve had news to share – but we want to get back in touch. The International Association for the Study of Affective Touch (IASAT) is organising a Social Event during the Read more…
Please bear with us! We’re making significant updates to IASAT.org – some things may break, and some functionality may be missing. clique neste link agora
Social touch is not purely a human behaviour. In fact, the C-tactile (CT) afferent was first characterised (as a C-low threshold mechanoreceptor) in cats. In this paper Testard et al. explore the social relationships within groups of macaques on a remote Read more…
The role of oxytocin (OT) in social behaviours has long been considered. Some studies suggest that endogenous OT is a mediator of social relationships, while other studies have shown that the exogenous manipulation of OT may not Read more…