A pleasant touch reduces psychoemotional stress via the oxytocin mechanism due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Our research is aimed to reveal the correlations between the subjectively perceived pleasantness of touch, the antioxidant potential of saliva, and salivary oxytocin. A total of 56 healthy volunteers aged 18–38 years participated in the study. The control group consisted of 24 volunteers. The participants were subjected to tactile stimulation using a specially designed protocol. They ranked the touch pleasantness on a scale from 1 to 10. Heart rate variability and low-frequency/high-frequency ratios from the power spectral density of ECG were determined to assess psychoemotional relaxation. Salivary oxytocin and antioxidant capacity were quantified before and after the touch test. We found a significant increase in salivary antioxidant potential and oxytocin after pleasant tactile stimulation for the participants compared to the control group. The difference in antioxidant capacity values before and after the test positively correlated with mean pleasantness in the touch test (r = 0.57) and the difference in heart rate variability (r = 0.67); it negatively correlated with the difference in low-frequency/high-frequency ECG band ratio (r = −0.59). Oxytocin ratio positively correlated with the difference in antioxidant capacity values (r = 0.47). As a result of tactile stimulation, a significant increase in the antioxidant capacity of saliva and salivary oxytocin was found in the test group compared to the control group. These findings support further studies of the effects of pleasant touch on hormonal and oxidative metabolism.

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触摸引起的情绪舒适导致唾液抗氧化潜力增加：相关研究

由于催产素的抗炎和抗氧化作用，愉快的触摸可以通过催产素机制减少心理情绪压力。我们的研究旨在揭示主观感知的触觉愉悦感、唾液的抗氧化潜力和唾液催产素之间的相关性。共有 56 名年龄在 18-38 岁的健康志愿者参加了这项研究。对照组由 24 名志愿者组成。参与者使用专门设计的协议进行触觉刺激。他们以 1 到 10 的等级对触摸的愉悦度进行了排名。确定了心电图功率谱密度的心率变异性和低频/高频比率，以评估心理情绪的放松。唾液催产素和抗氧化能力在触摸测试前后进行量化。我们发现，与对照组相比，参与者在愉快的触觉刺激后唾液抗氧化能力和催产素显着增加。测试前后抗氧化能力值的差异与触摸测试中的平均愉悦度呈正相关（r  = 0.57）和心率变异性的差异（r  = 0.67）；它与低频/高频心电图频带比的差异（r  = -0.59）呈负相关。催产素比例与抗氧化能力值的差异呈正相关（r =  0.47）。作为触觉刺激的结果，与对照组相比，在测试组中发现唾液和唾液催产素的抗氧化能力显着增加。这些发现支持进一步研究愉快的触摸对荷尔蒙和氧化代谢的影响。