Annett Schirmer
Papers
2
Total Citations
44
H-Index
2
About
Annett Schirmer’s research illuminates the subtle interplay between social cognition, emotion, and the senses, with a particular focus on how we process touch and vocal cues. Her work has been instrumental in uncovering sex differences in affective touch—the comforting, pleasant sensations that underpin social bonding. In a key 2022 paper (30 citations), she demonstrated that women and men experience the pleasantness of gentle stroking differently, linking these variations to social comfort and early life experiences. Schirmer has also challenged long-held assumptions about touch perception: her 2022 study (14 citations) revealed that the widely accepted inverted u-shaped relationship between stroking velocity and pleasantness may be an artifact of the rotary tactile stimulator, which applies uneven force. By showing that stroking trajectory shapes how velocity affects touch percepts, she has refined our understanding of tactile hedonic processing. Her work not only advances fundamental knowledge of human social interaction but also has implications for therapeutic touch and affective computing. With a career marked by rigorous, paradigm-questioning research, Schirmer continues to shape how we think about the body’s role in social life.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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