Potential applications of humanoid robotic touch for social regulation of emotion: evidence from ECG and fNIRS

Fu Guo, Chen Fang, Zenggen Ren and Mingming Li

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 12, 3064-3079

Abstract: Human-robot touch interaction plays an essential role in emotional support and human mental health support. The role of therapeutic robots such as Paro in mental support has been widely investigated. However, the impact of humanoid robotic touch on the social regulation of users’ emotions is still unknown. Therefore, a mixed experiment was conducted with the type of touch (grip versus contact) as the between-subjects factor and the presence of touch during movie reception (with versus without touch) as the within-subjects factor. The subjective perception of emotion, ECG, and fNIRS signals were collected during the experiment. The results showed that robot touch regulates subjectively positive emotions, reduces HR, increases HRV, and helps suppress the brain activity on the right DLPFC. No main effect of touch type was found on the regulation effect of subjective emotions, autonomic responses, and central nervous responses. The study provides subjective and neurophysiological evidence for the great potential of humanoid robotics for the social regulation of emotion.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2024.2427831

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