A new study has found that all women need to lower their stress levels is a strong and happy marriage.

A team of researchers led by James A. Coan, a University of Virginia neuroscientist has found that women under threat who hold their husbands' hands show signs of immediate¹ relief, which can clearly be seen on their brain scans.

Coan, an assistant professor in the U.Va. Neuroscience Graduate Program and the Department of Psychology², and his team conducted a study involving several couples who rated themselves as highly satisfied with their marriages.

The researchers designed a functional³ MRI (magnetic resonance⁴ imaging) study in which 16 married women were subjected to the threat of a very mild electric shock while they by turns held their husband's hand, the hand of a stranger (male) or no hand at all.

They found that the MRI was able to show how these women's brains responded to this handholding while in a threatening situation.

The researchers noted⁵ a large decrease in the brain response to threat as a function of spouse⁶ handholding, and a limited decrease in this response as a function of stranger handholding.

Moreover, spouse handholding effects varied⁷ as a function of marital⁸ quality, with women in the very highest quality marriages benefiting from a very powerful decrease in threat-related brain activity.

"This is the first study of the neurological reactions to human touch in a threatening situation." said Dr. Coan.

The study is published in the December 2006 issue of the journal Psychological Science.