That Lovin' Feeling: Guys' Brains Respond to Gentle Touch

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Gentle touching triggers the release of opioids in the brain that may underlie social bonding. (Image credit: Hugo Felix, Shutterstock)

Sometimes, science requires test tubes and Petri dishes. And other times, it involves stroking men wearing only their underpants.

In a new study, researchers from Aalto University in Finland imaged the brains of scantily clad men who were being gently touched by their partners. The social contact activated chemicals in the brain's opioid system that may be critical for maintaining social bonds with others.

To test this idea, researchers scanned the brains of nine men using positron emission tomography (PET), which detects radiation emitted by a tracer molecule to construct a 3D image of the brain.

In one session, the men lay in the scanner wearing only underwear, while their female partners touched them gently all over their bodies, except in sexually arousing areas. In another session, the men lay alone in the scanner, without any sensory stimulation.

The researchers examined how much binding occurred at opioid receptors in the brain. Preliminary analysis, reported Nov. 11 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, Calif., showed a spike in natural opioids in the ventral striatum and anterior cingulate cortex, critical parts of the brain's reward circuitry.

By activating the opioid system, gentle touching may be the glue that maintains social bonds between people, the research suggests. The results of the study have not yet been published in a scientific journal.

Previous studies in animals have shown opioids play an important role in pair bonding. For example, prairie voles are monogamous in the wild, but in studies where researchers give them a drug that blocks opioids in their brain, the animals start to philander. And in monkeys, blocking opioids causes them to groom each other less and stop caring for their babies.

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Tanya Lewis
Tanya Lewis
Staff Writer
Tanya was a staff writer for Live Science from 2013 to 2015, covering a wide array of topics, ranging from neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is, you can visit her website.