Sarah McIntyre

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Sarah McIntyre is a leading researcher in the cognitive neuroscience of touch, with a particular focus on bridging the gap between controlled laboratory experiments and the rich, dynamic tactile interactions of everyday life. Her work centers on developing and validating naturalistic stimuli for touch research, a critical step toward understanding how the human brain processes the complex, socially embedded sensations of physical contact. In her highly cited 2022 paper, “Naturalistic stimuli in touch research,” McIntyre argues that traditional robotic and mechanical devices fail to capture the nuanced, reciprocal nature of human-to-human touch, and she outlines a framework for creating scientifically rigorous yet ecologically valid experimental paradigms. While her citation count is still growing—a reflection of the emerging nature of this field—her contributions are already shaping the direction of affective and social neuroscience. By championing naturalistic methods, McIntyre is helping to move the study of touch from the lab bench into the real world, with profound implications for understanding social bonding, emotional communication, and therapeutic applications. Her work is a clarion call for methodological innovation in a field poised for transformative discovery.