All in the Mind

Can touch be replicated digitally? What devices exist already and how likely are we to use them?

Left isolating in London during lock down, flatmates B and Z came up with a plan to stay healthy with a 6 0’clock hug.

At the Pink Diamond Martial Arts Club Hasina teaches Luton women from all cultures to defend themselves physically. This form of touch helped Hasina overcome the bullying of her childhood. But how do early experiences and cultural influences shape how you feel about touch? Stereotypes abound for different nationalities, for example, the reserved British person complete with a stiff upper lip or the ebullient Italian. Michael Banissy from Goldsmiths University of London, writer of the Touchstone Tales, Sudha Bhuchar and Juulia Suvilehto from Linkoping University in Sweden look at the results of the Touch Test and ask if attitudes to touch are more nuanced than outdated stereotypes.

Campaigner and activist Amy Kavanagh is partially sighted and on her daily trip to work receives much unwanted touch. Some touch from strangers is well meaning but without her consent, while she is also subject to abusive and violent touch. In Anatomy of Touch Dr Natalie Bowling from Greenwich University and co-creator of the BBC Touch Test looks at what the results tell us about touch between strangers.

The study looked at attitudes around consent and Joanna Bourke Professor of History at Birkbeck University looks at issues of consent and entitlement. And while it might seem that social distancing would prevent unwanted touch, evidence suggests that there is a transfer of the abuse online. Meanwhile for Amy she isn’t travelling to work anymore because Covid means she can’t see who is around her and the risk of catching Covid is too high. But she does have a campaign ready for when she can travel again which is #JustAskDon’tGrab.

In Anatomy of Touch Claudia Hammond asks whether people have enough touch in their lives and what has been the impact of Covid-19.

Claudia meets John, who, growing up during the Second World War, endured a lack of touch in his childhood and discovers how in adult life he overcame this absence of touch and why touch remains so important to him. And we discover solutions to touch hunger and simple ways to compensate for the lack of touch.

Blue Health and well-being:

Discussing dying:

Diet or exercise to starve off memory decline?

Claudia Hammond's guest is Prof. Catherine Loveday, Principal Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster.

People living with bipolar disorder can experience episodes of depression and mania which last for weeks - and following these episodes many say they have cognitive deficits - difficulties with memory, concentrating and doing even simple tasks. Rosie Phillips who has bipolar and works as a Peer Support Services Manager for the charity Bipolar UK experienced such difficulties after an episode of mania. She describes the impact as like going head-first through a car windscreen, needing a long period of recovery. Professor Allan Young of Kings College, London, wants to see if a treatment called Cognitive Remediation Therapy can help. Originally used to improve the thinking skills of people with schizophrenia, the therapy involves working with a therapist on a computer for 3 months. Although the work has been affected by lockdown so far the results look promising.

Getting up early comes naturally to some people who are like larks whereas their late-night counterparts, the owls thrive on staying up late. New research carried out at Brunel University has revealed that the grey matter in one area of the brain called the precuneus is larger in owls than larks. But it's not such good news for owls. Previous studies have already shown that lower volumes of grey matter in this region are associated with how empathetic and pro-social someone is, traits which are associated with being an early riser.

When you use certain apps on your phone or computer a tell-tale blue or green dot or tick lets people know if you are online. But do you want everyone to know when you are available? New research suggests that many people don't realise just how much information that online status indicators reveal to other people.

Emerging from lockdown might not be as easy on our mental health as it sounds. After weeks spent adjusting to lockdown and working out how to cope, how easy is it to re-adjust to old routines? And is it even possible to predict how we’ll feel about things in a few weeks’ time? Daisy Fancourt, Associate Professor of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London discusses the latest results from the Covid-19 Social study, exploring how people’s feelings have changed during the course of the pandemic. Claudia Hammond is also joined by Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, and James Downs, a campaigner on mental health and eating disorders.

Claudia Hammond’s guest is psychologist Prof Daryl O’Connor from University of Leeds with news of new research on the striking impact a supportive family environment can have on your susceptibility to the common cold in later life.

We are hearing a lot about the possibility of job losses in the future as a result of the pandemic. But there are some people starting new jobs under lockdown – with the prospect of not meeting their colleagues in person. So how will people manage? We hear from two experts who are just embarking – or about to embark, on new jobs: Andrew Clements a senior lecturer in Organisational Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire and Gail Kinman, Visiting Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Birkbeck University.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Produced in association with the Open University

The success of the recent SpaceX launch to the ISS has reignited talk of return manned missions to the moon and onwards to Mars. But beyond well know physiological effects of space travel on our bodies, what do effects of immobility and microgravity have on our brains? A new study offers a detailed insight from 12 fit astronauts subjected to a battery of tests in a microgravity simulator capturing changes in brain images, disrupted sleep rhythms and mood changes and cognition. As Ivana Rosenzweig, Head of the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre at Kings College London explains, her work has important implications for understanding astronaut behaviour and capabilities – and more immediately – the long term effects on the brains of Covid 19 patients supported on ventilators.

Viktor E. Frankl, was one of the last of the great Viennese psychotherapists, who used his experiences as a prisoner in German concentration camps in World War II to write ''Man's Search for Meaning,'' an enduring work of survival literature.. A collection of his lectures, Life in Spite of Everything, is now published in English. His writings, lectures and teaching were an important force in forming the modern concept that many factors may be implicated in mental illness - opening the door to a wide variety of psychotherapies. Frankl’s grandson, Alex Vesely, together with the Viennese psychotherapist and former colleague Alfred Lengle, reveal how this newly translated collection of his lectures underpin his ideas about hope, resilience and ways to confront personal suffering, which continues to have great relevance to us in today’s uncertain world.

When parents try to hide their stress, can they still pass on these feelings to their children? Sara Waters at Washington State University has been measuring the extent to which children “catch” their parents’ stress during interaction. The more out of control parents feel - and during a global pandemic that feeling is likely exacerbated- the stronger they have an impulse to reassure their kids that everything is OK. But it may be more comforting for kids to have their feelings discussed than just be told “it's going to be fine”.

Claudia Hammond’s guest is Catherine Loveday Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster.

Producer: Adrian Washbourne

Claudia Hammond explores how children think with two psychologists; Dr Victoria Simms from Ulster University who researches how children’s understanding of maths develops and Professor Teresa McCormack from Queens University Belfast who researches how children understand time. The discussion was recorded in front of an audience at the Northern Ireland Science Festival in February 2020.

Producer: Caroline Steel