In the University of Virginia study, entitled Lending a Hand: Social Regulation of the Neural Response to Threat, 16 married couples with relationships judged to be strong were observed. The women's brain waves were measured through functional magnetic resonance imaging as they were confronted with the threat of electric shock while holding the hand of their husband, an anonymous male stranger, or no hand at all. The stress levels were reduced most significantly while the wives held the hands of their husbands, and the couples with marriages judged to be the strongest showed the biggest impact during the experiment.
"We've known for decades that being in a good, committed relationship makes wounds heal faster, makes you sick less often and even live longer," said lead researcher and neuroscientist Dr. James Coan. "But the main point of this study is that no one had been able to quantify the mental benefits of a close relationship in terms of improved health."
The scientists gathered several couples from the Madison, Wis. area, with several being rejected because the initial assignment found their marriages to be unhealthy or unfit for the experiment. The scientists hope to research less happy couples in the future, and they also plan to conduct the experiments on men and gay and lesbian couples.
"We expect people in relationships that are not as strong will not get the same benefits from hand holding but we do not know to what extent," Coan said. "What this does show though is that we are designed to depend on other people."
###