touch calms the recipient of the touch during
stressful experiences ... can reduce activation in
threat-related regions of the brain ... can influence
activation in the stress pathway in the nervous sys-
tem, reducing levels of the stress hormones ... has
been found to stimulate the release of oxytocin,
a neuropeptide produced in the hypothala-
mus ... Elevated levels of oxytocin are associated
with increased trust, cooperative behavior, shar-
ing with strangers, the more effective reading
of others’ emotions, and more constructive con-
flict resolution.
That’s from a federal lawsuit against solitary
confinement. Lawyers bringing the decade-
old suit, on behalf of inmates at a California
maximum- security prison, argued that its
practice of isolating inmates for years—with an
elaborate security system that nearly eliminated
physical contact with others, even guards—
amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual
punishment. Details of a settlement are still
being fought over in court, but part of the per-
manent record now is the expert report written
by University of Cali fornia, Berkeley psychol-
ogy professor Dacher Keltner, who for more than
15 years has been teaching and supervising
research in the science of touch. “It’s our earliest
and, you could argue, our fundamental language
of social connection,” Keltner told me.
Earliest evolutionarily, he means: We humans
are believed to have used “tactile communica-
tion,” as the scientific papers say, before we
began figuring out speech. And earliest indi-
vidually: Touch is now understood to be the
first sensation a fetus perceives. At birth and
during the initial months of life, it’s an infant’s
most critical and fully developed sense—the
way babies start exploring the world, developing
confidence, learning where their bodies end and
everything else begins.
One of psychology’s most influential and
disturbing studies of touch featured babies, in
fact, although in this case they were lab mon-
keys. In the late 1950s, a team led by University
of Wisconsin psychologist Harry Harlow took
newborn rhesus macaques from their mothers
and isolated them in cages with two vaguely
monkey-shaped surrogates, one made of bare
wire and the other covered with soft terry cloth.
In one of Harlow’s experiments, only the wire
surrogate dispensed milk. The babies taught
themselves to drink from it, but as soon as they
TOP
The
Experiment
The hook prosthesis
Oldham wears for
daily life is fine, he
says; he enjoys put-
tering in his basement
woodworking shop.
But the limb injuries
of post-9/11 war veter-
ans were on his mind
when he volunteered
for experimental
surgery that might
let him sense touch
in his missing hand.BOTTOM
Prep for
Surgery
Plastic surgery res-
ident Carrie Kubiak
checks on Oldham at
U-M Health’s Univer-
sity Hospital, prior
to surgery to implant
electrode wires. Lead
surgeon Paul Cederna
has marked the skin
that will be cut. When
describing these
experiments, Cederna
has called the process
“melding humans
and machines.”‘IF IT W ILL HELP
SOMEONE ELSE’
After a malignancy
in 2018 forced retired
Michigan teacher
Neil Oldham to have
his right lower arm
and hand amputated,
he agreed to join
the University of
Michigan’s touch-
restoration research—
which meant new
surgery to implant
electrodes. “I was
blessed having both
arms and legs for 70
years,” Oldham says.
“I’m OK with being
a guinea pig if it will
help someone else.”48 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC