Hands-on research: Neuroscientists show how brain responds to sensual caress
Monday, June 4, 2012 - 20:30
in Psychology & Sociology
A nuzzle of the neck, a brush of the knee -- these caresses often signal a loving touch, but can also feel highly aversive, depending on who is delivering the touch, and to whom. Interested in how the brain makes connections between touch and emotion, neuroscientists have discovered that the association begins in the brain's primary somatosensory cortex, a region that was thought only to respond to basic touch.