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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec 28, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A University of Virginia study found that women experience less anxiety during stressful events when they hold hands with their husbands.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, involved 16 married women shown pictures of a red X, which carried with it a 20 percent chance of mild electric shock, and a blue O, which carried no chance of shock, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Each woman alternately held the hand of her husband, a stranger or faced the pictures solo.
The researchers found that while holding any hand had a claming effect on the women, only the hands of the husbands affected the parts of the brain responsible for worrying.
"Holding any hand at all calms regions of the brain that are responsible for the body's physical stress response," James Coan, the study's lead author and a neuroscientist of the University of Virginia said to the Post. "But only the spousal hand affected regions of the brain that are responsible for worrying ... This is the region which is thought to be associated with your experience of pain."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
