The Role of Somatosensory Cortex and Trait Empathy in Perception of Positive Social Touch: A tDCS Study

The current data are part of a study that used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to
investigate whether enhancing SI activity influences emotional responses to observed social
touch, and whether such effects are moderated by individual differences in trait empathy. Fifty-nine participants (ages 19-36) rated emotional responses to images of humans or
objects, either touching or not, during two sessions: sham and anodal tDCS applied over right
or left SI. Participants also completed measures of trait cognitive and emotional empathy. This project contains:
1. De-identified task response data
2. De-identified Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) questionnaire responses
3. De-identified demographics information
4. SPSS analytical code (including a SPSS data sheet)