Darwin's take on tickling: interesting

[TickleSimone]

Darwin was the first to point out that a tickling victim squirms and strains to withdraw the tickled part, to get away from attacks on vulnerable areas such as the soles of the feet, armpits, belly and flank. If a fly settles on a horse's belly, the horse ripples his skin muscles as a tickled child squirms. But he doesn't laugh.

Children don't always either. "The child will laugh only--and this is the crux of the matter--when it perceives tickling as a *mock attack*, a caress in mildly aggressive disguise," says the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Tickling perception happens in the cerebral cortex, a higher-function part of the brain. The cerebellum, a primitive part of the brain, dampens the tickle sensation when you tickle yourself by telling the cortex to ignore the sensation, says Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, cognitive neuroscientist at London's Institute of Neurology, who has concluded a study of the matter and reported her findings in the November 1998 issue of Nature Neuroscience.

By the way, ours is not the only species that laughs and responds to tickling. Jaak Panksepp and Jeffrey Burgdorf, neuroscientists at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, just concluded a study of rats. "We tickle rats just the way you would a young child," says Panksepp in recent email. They chirp, kick their feet, and get excited--they're especially ticklish about the nape of the neck, he says.

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😉 now remember, if you tickle those rats, they should be a WILLING victim!! 🙂

 

[WraithTickler]

Always interesting stuff. I've read from other posts that generally tickling servers as a warning sensation for areas that aren't in direct visible sight.

As for the laughter response, it's some form of audible excitement, which makes sense. As to the why it's laughter opposed to screaming or some other sound... mayhaps because it's not painful or along those lines the body responds as such with indicating it as something harmless?

 

[Battousai]

I've heard both of these descriptions before. They're just theories really, backed up by some proof, but no-one knows for sure what the purpose of being ticklish is. Early warning sounds plausable to me, but we already feel when something touches us. Why have that ticklish feeling? Even if laughter is from a mock attack, you'll still try to get away from the tickling, so it's not just like, "Hm, there seems to be something there."

Some other scientists suggested that it's a way for young creatures (not just humans) to learn to defend their weakspots. Chimps have tickle fights too, and they think that's the reason.

If you ask me, they're missing a good theory. "People are ticklish cause it's fun." I mean, sure, it's not some huge, life saving purpose, but it makes sense to me at least. XD

 

[elfriend]

wow that is really interesting I have never really thought about it. Wow and rats are ticklish that is weird and then again kinda cute.

 

[darkscar]

I have read some stuff about rats me. I usually surf the net seeing if there are any studies done about tickling at the university. There was a story on the news along time ago about a robot hand tickling the feet of subjects for studies. Someone was talking though it and I never got to hear the stories. So I was looking it up on the net to see if they had it and some pics.