Author explores the importance of touch

Barnes & Noble hosted David Linden, author and neuroscience professor at the School of Medicine, on Feb. 16. Linden read from and discussed his recent book Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind, published last year.

Linden has received acclaim as an author in the past, notably making it onto The New York Times Bestseller list in 2011 with his second work, The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good.

Linden’s newest book differs somewhat from his general focus, concentrating instead on memory. It examines this sense and its importance in human development, discussing the effects of seemingly simple acts and the consequences of withholding them.

Linden opened his talk by discussing an interview with a veteran who served in Iraq. During the interview, the veteran spoke about being shot multiple times while attempting to care for a wounded person during a firefight.

Linden said that the veteran had described the sensation of the bullet hitting him as insignificant; He had not even registered the pain. Linden explained to the audience that this ignorance of pain is not uncommon on the battlefield and is a result of extraordinarily stressful situations.

The author compared this to his own experiences of going to the doctor’s office as a child. In this situation, the seemingly minor trauma of getting a shot seemed extreme and unbearable to the young Linden. To explain the difference between his experience with pain and the veteran’s, Linden said that the memory of past shots and the anticipation of the one to come amplified the discomfort of the injection.

Linden then read from the prologue of Touch, describing a scene set in Malibu, Calif. in 1975. With prosaic dialogue and imagery, the author recalled playing a game of “Would You Rather,” in which each player was asked which sensations they would choose over others. Linden noted that it was interesting how little the sense of touch factored into the conversation, although it is so fundamental to human perception of life.

To assert the importance of touch, Linden discussed how it has penetrated language. He pointed out that when one speaks of an impolite person, they call them “tactless.” The word “tactless” derives from “tact,” which is defined as “the sense of touch.”

Linden then went on to point out what a life devoid of this sensation would be like. Linden used Romanian children raised in understaffed and crowded orphanages as an example of the distinct negative physical and mental health effects that the absence of “loving touch” can lead to.

In light of this fact, Linden questioned the bans on public touch in places like schools with the idea that suitable and amicable touch should be preserved in communal settings.

Having described the emotional subtleties of touch, Linden next gave a brief overview of its scientific realities. He pointed out that the nerve endings related to the sense vary in their sensitivity and their ability to discriminate.

Linden also said that your body determines the emotional content of touch, translating it as positive or negative, pain or pleasure. As he mentioned before, those emotions can be influenced by expectations.

Linden pointed out to the audience that no one really thinks about the sensation of clothes rustling on their body because the body ignores feelings created by self-produced movements as a result of activity in the cerebellum. Apparently the recognition of those sensations would mean that there is some damage in the cerebellum.

To further explain this fact, Linden talked about a game his children would play in which two twins would stand on opposite sides of a door and take turns pushing on it.

Someone inevitably got hurt in this game because each time the door was pushed, the other person increased the force. Linden explained this was because a trick of touch made it feel as though an equal force was being applied, when in reality each push was harder than the last.

David Linden’s book discusses how the body processes physical sensations and how emotions, experiences, thoughts and many other factors influence our perception. The author’s talk and readings from the book gave new insight into a sense that so many take for granted.