Once the number of coronavirus cases increased, we were told not to touch each other. How did one year of not being able to use the universal language of touch affect us?
In my AP psychology class, we had a unit on human development. We learned that for babies, touch is so important that if they don’t get touched enough, they might die. This is because touch is a sensory stimulation. When you touch something or when something touches you, your sensory receptors in your skin send a signal to your brain. Your brain interprets this signal as you being touched, which helps with the development of your brain.
In our brains, our sensory cortex is right next to the motor cortex. This makes sense because if you accidentally touch the hot part of the iron, the sensory receptors will send the signal up to your sensory cortex, which will send signals to the motor cortex, which will send signals to the motor neurons in your hands to remove your hand. Your reflexes, on the other hand, occur because the electrical signals sent from your sensory receptors bypass your brain.
Even though we are limited in how many people we can interact with and how close we can be to them, most of us don’t live in complete social isolation. We, humans, are social animals. Our cooperation has not only helped us survive, it has helped us thrive.
Our brains change very easily. Every new experience, every new sensation, causes neurons to branch out in different ways. This is why it is so important for us to get stimulated through being touched and through being with other people.
When people are in solitary confinement, the neurons in their brains start to slow down their process of branching out, and if it goes on for long enough, this branching out can stop. This essentially means that during solitary confinement, people’s brains have stopped developing, which can be extremely detrimental.
This is an extreme analogy for what the pandemic has been putting us through, but it might be interesting and scary to note the effects that the pandemic will have on us.
Additionally, the pandemic has stopped us from getting as many hugs as we used to get. Hugs have many benefits: They help lower stress, boost up our immune systems, may lower our heart rates and blood pressure, and can lead to decreased depression. These benefits are something else that has been taken away from us for over a year now.
But, things are looking up. People are getting vaccinated (got my second dose last week!), and so while it may be a little bit weird to reenter society, I’m very excited to see my life become a new, better normal.
