The act of touching helps form social relationships between people through a physiological process that involves hormones, in particular cortisol, heart rate and body temperature. Specific skin nerves respond to delicate touch, particularly caresses, but not to rapid caresses (faster than 10 centimeters a second) or to rubbing. The stimulated nerves reach brain areas that mediate feelings of pain and reduce it. Identical but faster caresses have no analgesic effect. Areas of the brain involved in mediating physical pain also mediate psychological pain such as the experience of being abandoned or refused. Various researchers thus propose caresses rather that words for those suffering from a suddenly broken off relationship or who are emarginated, isolated or excluded. Clearly, you need to be tactful in the way you touch. If done properly cats purr, babies stop crying and people feel touched deep down.