Science & tech · 2018
When partners hold hands during pain, is more closely coordinated brain activity linked to greater pain relief?
Yes, that association was observed in an experiment with romantic partners. During pain, holding hands increased coordination between their brain activity in the measured 8–12 Hz range compared with not touching. Greater coordination was linked to greater pain relief, but this does not establish that the coordination caused the relief.
Details
Researchers assigned romantic partners to receive pain or watch their partner receive it. They recorded both partners’ electrical brain activity under conditions with and without pain and with and without touch.
The analysis focused on brain activity in the 8–12 Hz range and how closely it was coordinated between partners. During pain, holding hands increased this coordination, mainly linking central brain regions in the person receiving pain with regions in the observer’s right hemisphere. Greater coordination in this network was associated with greater pain relief and with the observer’s accuracy in judging their partner’s pain.
The findings suggest that coordinated brain activity may be involved in pain relief related to touch, rather than establishing it as the mechanism causing relief. The abstract does not report the sample size or the strength of the association with pain relief, limiting how precisely the result can be assessed.
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