Couples MRI Investigates How Touching is Perceived in the Brain

An MRI in each other's arms shows how physical contact alters the brains of couples

April 30, 2020 — Researchers at Aalto University and Turku PET Centre have developed a new method for simultaneous imaging brain activity from two people, allowing them to study social interaction.

In a recent study, the researchers scanned brain activity from 10 couples. Each couple spent 45 minutes inside the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner in physical contact with each other. The objective of the study was to examine how social contact activates the brain. The results were published in the theme issue Social Interaction in Neuropsychiatry of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.

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