One might think that the one action human beings do not require a mathematical formula to perform is the stroking of skin that elicits the “pleasure response” that calms babies and makes lovers feel loved. Not to worry; diligent researchers are here to help.
The BBC reports that researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and at the University of North Carolina identified a class of nerve fibers in the skin that sends
pleasure messages. Next, they attempted to find the speed of stroking
that best activated those fibers. The researchers recorded nerve responses in 20 people, and looked at how people responded to having their forearm skin stroked at a range of different speeds. Robot readers will be interested to learn that to activate the pleasure response, people had to be stroked at 4 to 5 cm per second, the same speed at which, scientists reveal, mothers instinctively stroke their infants, and lovers routinely stroke one another for reassurance. The researchers advise mothers and lovers to continue doing what they have done for all of recorded time.
Read a nearly incomprehensible abstract of the study in Nature Neuroscience.
Read more from the BBC.
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