title: When touch matters: an affective tactile intervention for older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our goal was to test the hypothesis that positive tactile experiences can lead to an improvement in cognitive, emotional skills and perceived quality of life in a group of healthy community-dwelling older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  During a 10-week period, older adults completed a series of activities that required manipulating either a piece of velvet, a piece of canvas or velcro.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only older adults who worked with velvet showed an increase in cognitive and emotional skills, and the perceived quality of life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study is one of the first to show that positive tactile experiences might have a beneficial effect on the psychological well-being of healthy community-dwelling older adults across different domains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mammarella
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fairfield
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Domenico
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D014110:Touch