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Discovery: Anatomy Of Touch: Affectionate touch

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Unwanted touch

26/10/2020 GMT

Affectionate touch

Anatomy Of Touch

BBC World Service - Discovery, Anatomy Of Touch, Affectionate touchSearch BBC

The science of affectionate touch, from the skin to brain

Claudia Hammond looks at the neuroscience behind our sense of touch. Why does a gentle touch from a loved one make us feel good? This is a question that neuroscientists have been exploring since the late 1990's, following the discovery of a special class of nerve fibres in the skin. There seems to be a neurological system dedicated to sensing and processing the gentle stroking you might receive from a parent or lover or friend, or that a monkey might receive from another grooming it. Claudia talks to neuroscientists Victoria Abraira, Rebecca Bohme, Katerina Fotopoulou and Francis McGlone who all investigate our sense of emotional touch, and she hears from Ian Waterman who lost his sense of touch at the age of eighteen.

Discovery: Anatomy Of Touch

Claudia Hammond explores current global attitudes to touch revealed by The Touch Test.

Claudia Hammond explores current global attitudes to touch revealed by The Touch Test. This was an online study commissioned by Wellcome Collection and created by psychologists at Goldsmiths University of London which investigated public attitudes towards and experiences of the physical experience of touch. Almost 40,000 people from 112 different countries chose to take part between 21st January and 30th March 2020.
 
The first programme takes  the result that around three quarters of the participants have a positive attitude to and around a quarter have a negative attitude to touch. Claudia and guests explore what good touch looks and feels like, and what is happening to our physiology and psychology when we make contact with another person. She hears from two flatmates who under lockdown decided to allow themselves a daily hug. 
 
Claudia also discusses the concept of touch hunger, a craving for human contact, physical connection and warmth. Has touch hunger increased during the pandemic and what might be the long term consequences of our mental health and future relationships? Claudia tries out an app that can overcome the lack of touch.

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