Neurobiological mechanisms of spontaneous facial self-touches and possibilities of its active suppression to prevent the risk of infection

自发面部自触的神经生物学机制及其主动抑制以预防感染风险的可能性

• 批准号: 453473340
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Martin Grunwald
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Haptik-Forschungslabor
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/453473340?language=en
• 关键词: Neurobiological; mechanisms; spontaneous; facial; self

Self-touches directed toward the face are performed between 400 and 800 times a day by every human being. This spontaneous and mostly unconscious behavior is one of the most frequent of human actions. Facial self-touches are a critical source of infections with bacteria or viruses since pathogens can be transmitted directly from the finger skin to orifices (mouth, nose). This behavior is not only ubiquitous, it is also very difficult to control over extended periods of time especially during cognitive and emotionally challenging situations. Own investigations (Grunwald et al., 2014) (Mueller et al., 2019) proved that immediately before and after spontaneous facial self-touches (sFST) electrical brain activity significantly changed. The dynamics of EEG changes support the assumption that sFST are involved with the regulation of both emotional and working memory processes. It could further be shown that sFST were more often directed towards the middle axis of the face than to the left or right side of the face. The planned study is set to investigate which neurobiological and memory effects occur while volitionally suppressing sFST under different straining conditions and if an active suppression is accompanied by an increase of untargeted limb and/or whole body movements. Additionally the study aims to examine if adverse neurobiological and memory effects occur when sFST are actively substituted with different compensatory actions (e.g. facial self-touch with an object). The study results are intended to generate new scientific knowledge about the phenomenon of sFST and to create feasible advice how to manage, control and/or substitute sFST in pandemic times.

每个人每天都会对自己的脸部进行400到800次的自我触摸。这种自发的、几乎是无意识的行为是人类最常见的行为之一。面部自我触摸是细菌或病毒感染的重要来源，因为病原体可以直接从手指皮肤传播到孔口（口，鼻）。这种行为不仅普遍存在，而且很难长时间控制，特别是在认知和情感挑战的情况下。自己的调查（Grunwald等人，2014）（Mueller等人，2019）证明，在自发面部自我触摸（sFST）之前和之后，大脑电活动发生了显着变化。EEG的动态变化支持sFST参与情绪和工作记忆过程的调节的假设。可以进一步表明，sFST更经常地指向面部的中轴，而不是面部的左侧或右侧。计划的研究旨在研究在不同紧张条件下自愿抑制sFST时发生的神经生物学和记忆效应，以及主动抑制是否伴随着非目标肢体和/或全身运动的增加。此外，该研究旨在检查当sFST被不同的补偿动作（例如面部自我触摸物体）主动替代时，是否会发生不良的神经生物学和记忆效应。研究结果旨在产生有关sFST现象的新科学知识，并为如何在大流行时期管理，控制和/或替代sFST提供可行的建议。