While touch always involves awareness, it also sometimes involves emotion. Now, scientists describe a system of slowly conducting nerves in the skin that respond to gentle touch. Investigators are ...

A viral Instagram reel by Hannah Fry shows how gentle, precise strokes activate C-tactile neurons to calm babies and reduce ...

For many people, the thing they’ve missed most during the pandemic is being able to hug loved ones. Indeed, it wasn’t until we lost our ability to hug friends and family did many realize just how ...

Marcello Costa is the co-founder of Friends of Science and Medicine. As a member of the Australian Academy of Science he is committed to uphold the highest standard of science in Australian tertiary ...

Doesn't even just reading the words "gentle touch" make you feel good? But why? What is it about a caress that is so deeply pleasurable? The answer may remain an ineffable mystery, but at least ...

Touch shapes us as humans. Indeed, touch is fundamental to what makes us social beings. Touch influences how we perceive stress and pain, who we trust and who we fear. Gentle touch is vital for us ...

Stroke the soft body of a newborn fruit fly larva ever-so-gently with a freshly plucked eyelash, and it will respond to the tickle by altering its movement — an observation that has helped scientists ...

The gentle touch of another individual soothes the effects of social exclusion, one of the most emotionally painful human experiences, according to new research. The gentle touch of another individual ...

A gentle touch can make all the difference. Premature babies – who miss out on the sensory experiences of late gestation – show different brain responses to gentle touch from babies that stay inside ...

“See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand That I might touch that cheek!” William Shakespeare The physical sensation of being touched can have a powerful effect ...