Friendships have a bigger effect on our psychological health
and wellbeing, as well as our physical health and wellbeing, than anything
else. Friendships are, however, extremely expensive to create and to maintain,
both in terms of their time cost and in terms of their underpinning
neurobiology. The basis of this lies in the endorphin system and the way
this is triggered by physical touch acting through the afferent C-tactile
neural system. In this lecture, I’ll explore the behavioral, cognitive and
neurobiological bases of friendships