Affectionate touch

Finding the wreck of the Titanic would be a career-defining achievement for most people. For oceanographer Robert Ballard, it's just one chapter in a life packed full of extraordinary marine exploration. Bob located the world-famous shipwreck in 1985, but even before that, he’d h ...  Show more

What do the very first writhing movements of babies have in common with orangutans solving problems for food? Well, according to Gillian Forrester they may both offer clues about how we humans developed language. Working with her great ape colleagues, Gilly Forrester – Professor ...  Show more

How do we feel with our fingertips? What parts of the brain integrate the complexities of touch? And how are scientists creating prosthetics that give feeling back to amputees? In this episode of How We’re Wired, join evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin as she unpicks the ...  Show more

The Touch Test. When did someone last touch you? Maybe they kissed you goodbye this morning or someone touched you on the arm on the bus because you’d dropped something. The Touch Test explores touch in its many forms and launches a major piece of research in which we want as man ...  Show more

This week, Hidden Brain considers the power of touch. First, Alison MacAdam tells us the story of her security blanket, called Baba. Then, Shankar interviews writer Deborah Blum about groundbreaking experiments into the importance of affection for young children.

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