Dear Doctors: Is it true that hugging is good for your health? Why would that be? Also, I remember hearing about someone with autism who used a kind of squeezing machine to help with anxiety. Is that the same thing that's going on when we hug each other?
Dear Reader: Your questions lead to a fascinating field of study: the neuroscience of touch. Also known as sensory neuroscience, it examines how the brain processes touch. This includes the regions of the brain that get activated. It also looks at the neurochemicals that are released. Researchers in this field are also interested in how the neurochemical changes that occur during touch affect the mind, emotions and the body.
Touch is the first of our senses to develop. At just eight weeks in utero, a fetus is already gaining touch receptors. By the eighth month, the baby's entire body is alive to the sense of touch. Within the uterus, the fetus can feel the movement of amniotic fluid; the presence of the placenta, umbilical cord and uterine walls; and contact with its own body. Touch from outside of the womb registers as well. Research has shown that when an expectant mother touches her abdomen, fetal movements increase.
After birth and throughout our lives, the sense of touch plays a key role in keeping us alive. Specialized neurons process touch and send it to the brain for interpretation. Touch allows us to detect and interpret a continuous flow of information. This includes temperature, pressure, pleasure, pain, itch, vibration and environmental shifts. Equally important, and the subject of your question, is the role of touch in social bonding. It's so intrinsic to who we are, even just seeing other people touch triggers the touch-related centers in our own brains.
And that brings us to hugging. Hugging is good for your health. It has been shown to move the needle on a range of clinical and laboratory tests. Before-and-after hug measurements have found it lowers levels of cortisol. It also leads to the release of the "love hormone" oxytocin and the "feel-good" hormone dopamine. The benefits of a hug can also linger. Several studies have found that hugging leads to lower levels of waking cortisol the next morning. Self-soothing with a hand pressed over the heart for 10 or more seconds has also proven effective.
While the squeezing machine you mentioned does deliver a sensation akin to a hug, neither the intent nor the result are the same. It was pioneered by Temple Grandin, a noted author and educator living with autism. She developed the deep-pressure device to manage the anxiety and sensory overload common in the condition. It does rely on the physical and neural networks of touch. However, the social and emotional pathways that are intrinsic to human touch are not engaged.
The bottom line: Hugging is a simple act that can calm stress, improve mood and build connection. Have a spare 10 or 20 seconds? Hug someone you love.
(Send your questions to [email protected], or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, 10960 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1955, Los Angeles, CA, 90024. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.)
