Category: Relationships

For the study, 10 couples spent 45 minutes inside a brain scanner together in close physical contact.

People’s brain patterns synchronise when they hug, new research demonstrates.

Scans of couples lying close together inside a brain scanner showed their brain activity falling into similar patterns.

Brains naturally tune in to each other in this kind of simple human interaction, the study shows.

Many other bodily functions, like cortisol levels, also fall into synchronisation when people are in close proximity, other research has shown.

The scientists think that future studies will show that the same regions of people’s brains activate when they are in close contact.

Professor Lauri Nummenmaa, study co-author, said:

“During social interaction, people’s brains are literally synchronised.

The associated mental imitation of other people’s movements is probably one of the basic mechanisms of social interaction.

The new technology now developed will provide totally new opportunities for studying the brain mechanisms of social interaction.”

For the study, 10 couples spent 45 minutes inside a brain scanner together in close physical contact.

Some were partners, others close friends.

The researchers wanted to see how social interaction activates the brain.

Couples then took turns tapping each other’s lips to test how the motor and sensory cortices of their brains reacted.

The results showed that people’s brains synchronised with each other.

Professor Riitta Hari, study co-author, said:

“This is an excellent start for the study of natural interaction.

People don’t just react to external stimuli, but adjust their actions moment-by-moment based on what they expect to happen next.”

The study developed a new method to scan two people’s brains at the same time.

This technique will be useful in understanding how the brain activates in social interactions, said Professor Hari:

“For example, during a conversation or problem solving, people’s brain functions become flexibly linked with each other.

However, we cannot understand the brain basis of real-time social interaction if we cannot simultaneously scan the brain functions of both persons involved in social interaction.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry (Renvall et al., 2020).

Men and women use different methods to deal with negative emotions in long-term relationships.

Men and women in long-term relationships deal with difficulties in different ways.

Men do not like to express negative emotions and tend to feel frustrated when trying to give or receive emotional support.

However, studies show that giving more emotional support can improve relationships, as can listening from the heart.

Women, though, feel more sadness and worry and prefer to express those negative emotions.

Unlike men, women prefer to talk through issues and offer support.

Women also feel better if they can give and receive support, unlike men who only seem to feel frustration.

Professor Deborah Carr, the study’s first author, said:

“The men don’t really want to talk about it or spend too much time thinking about it.

Men often don’t want to express vulnerable emotions, while women are much more comfortable expressing sadness or worry.”

The conclusions come from a study of 722 couples who had been married for an average of 39 years.

They were asked about their marital experience and how their spouse reacted to and affected them.

The results showed that giving and receiving support tended to make women feel better, but not men.

Naturally, men also reported receiving more emotional support from their wives.

However, women tended to feel more strain in their relationship.

Professor Carr said:

“For women, getting a lot of support from their spouse is a positive experience.

Older men, however, may feel frustrated receiving lots of support from their wife, especially if it makes them feel helpless or less competent.”

Sadness, worry and frustration are the negative emotions most frequently reported by long-term couples.

Professor Carr said:

“Men who provide high levels of support to their wives may feel this frustration if they believe that they would rather be focusing their energies on another activity.”

The results in this study may be partly down to the older generation involved.

Younger couples may have different patterns.

The study was published in the The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences (Carr et al., 2016).