Adarsh Makdani

Papers

Total Citations

112

H-Index

About

Adarsh Makdani is a leading researcher in the neurobiology of human touch, bridging the gap between affective social interactions and sensorimotor control. Their work is defined by two core themes: how early-life adversity reshapes tactile perception, and the neural mechanisms underlying how we sense and act upon touch. Makdani’s landmark study, “Childhood Adversity and Affective Touch Perception” (61 citations), demonstrated that care leavers in the UK—individuals who experienced neglect or abuse—show altered processing of gentle, affective touch, linking early trauma to long-term changes in social bonding and mental health. This work has profound implications for understanding developmental psychology and therapeutic interventions. Complementing this, their highly cited 2024 study (28 citations) on “Human tactile sensing and sensorimotor mechanism” integrates computational modeling with neural dynamics to decode how afferent touch signals drive motor commands, a critical challenge in robotics and prosthetics. Makdani also explores individual differences in touch preference, as shown in their 2023 work on static versus dynamic affective touch (23 citations), which refines the social touch hypothesis of C-tactile afferents. Their research is essential reading for anyone interested in the neuroscience of emotion, development, or haptic technology.