“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 ...

"This group of behaviors affects about 5% of the world population," said Dr. Tiffany Libby, a dermatologist at Brown Dermatology. That's about 380 million people. These group of behaviors is known as ...

Researchers showed that cells in your hair follicles release important chemical messengers in response to gentle touches to your skin. By Veronique Greenwood When someone brushes a hand across your ...

For people who can’t stop biting their nails or picking at their skin, a new study suggests that a simple technique could help. Body-focused repetitive behaviors — compulsively pulling or picking at ...

Michael Banissy receives funding from the ESRC. Most of us know how good it feels to receive a hug from a loved one or hold hands with a partner. But what many of us may not realise is that touch is ...

In 2018, when Leah Elias was a behavioral neuroscience graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, she noticed something unusual while stimulating nerves in a mouse’s back. The mouse was ...

Those huge bakery muffins promise a lot, but often don't deliver. Happily, home-baked muffins do. With very little time and effort, you can enjoy warm-from-the-oven muffins that are not only beautiful ...

Affective touch, a subtle yet fundamental form of tactile communication, plays a decisive role in fostering emotional bonds and social affiliation. Research in this field examines how gentle, slow ...