The Neuroscience of Why You Could Really Use a Hug Right Now – Wired

For those quarantined alone, the lack of human touch can feel agonizing. A neurological phenomenon called “skin hunger” explains why.

Wired News link

“When you touch the skin,” explains Tiffany Field of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami, “it stimulates pressure sensors under the skin that send messages to the vagus [a nerve in the brain]. As vagal activity increases, the nervous system slows down, heart rate and blood pressure decrease, and your brain waves show relaxation. Levels of stress hormones such as cortisol are also decreased.”