The Capabilities of our Minds: Touch, the Natural History of the Senses

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Touch: The Capabilities of our Mind 

By Ava Barry



As a society, we joke about touch all the time. We say to our cranky friend, “You must be touch-deprived”, but what does that mean? Being touch-deprived sounds like a horrible life! Touch is essential to our happiness. If you are reading this, as a touch-deprived folk, thinking oh you are being overdramatic, it isn’t that bad- I am going to stop you there. It is that bad. In Daniel Ackerman’s book, The Natural History of the Senses, she explains a study of touch conducted on monkeys. In this study, they found that “a relatively small amount of touch deprivation alone caused brain damage, which was often displayed in the monkeys [test subject] as aberrant behavior”. Lack of touch can be detrimental to us, even if we are unaware of it. Touch us something that changes your whole mood, for it makes people feel happier. 

If you are still not buying it, just think of how great you feel after a long hug from a loved one. During that hug you can feel your breath slow as you melt into the person embracing you. Now imagine having contact touch like that- your mood would be more peaceful and happy along with your parasympathetic nervous system would be active. 

One may beg the question, what about the touch we can’t feel? Now this is an interesting question. When thinking about the touch we can’t feel, my mind often goes to sports. I’ve been playing rugby all of college, and in that setting, it seems our brains turn off our touch receptors. When I am in a game, I do not feel my cuts, bumps, and bruises. I sure as hell feel them the moment I step off the field, but in the game, it's like they aren’t there. It is amazing what our mind can do, for how it turns off the feeling of pain due to adrenaline is remarkable. Having the personal experience of not always feeling touch in certain situations causes me to think about whether that type of touch (even when you don’t feel it and it hurts you later) is still good for you?

It is an interesting question because of how contradictory it feels: a touch that hurts you is good for you? Or, for touch to be good for you, does it have to be international? I would argue that touch, for you to reap the mental and mood rewards, must be intentional. With that said, I would say that Ackerman would disagree with me. In her book, she talks about how any touch sends the brain into a fury of activity, and this to me, would mean that she is also saying touch we may not notice or feel. As much as I want to agree with her that fury of activity always changes mood for the better, I really do think that unintentional touch just isn’t the same. Nevertheless, I hope all the touch-deprived people out there reading this reconsider their life choices, whether that means joining a sport that could possibly give you some human contact, or (the better option) go hug some people! It’s good for you!

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM

    When we take a deeper dive into touch toward the end of the semester, we're going to read some great material on touch and pain, and pain in religion - "sacred pain" - by Ariel Glucklich. Maybe you'd be interested in doing the presentation on Touch. BTW, the Hebrew word for fighting or weapon and kssing is the same - neshek, suggesting there may be a primal connection.

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