Why can’t we tickle ourselves? It’s a good question ! A journalist from the editorial staff of Santé Magazine answers this question.
The tickle robot test
You can’t tickle yourself, and researchers from the very serious University of London College have also asked themselves the question. But why can’t we tickle ourselves?
In their experiment conducted with 15 volunteers, the researchers set up tests with tickling robots:
- In the first test: The volunteers were randomly and surprisingly tickled by a robot operated in another room. And they laughed.
- In the second test: the volunteers were tickled by a robot that they operated themselves. At this precise moment, the researchers were able to observe via an MRI that the cerebellum came into action and sent a warning message to the brain. Telling him in essence: “do not take into account the sensations that will happen”.
Nature is well made !
This experiment proves one thing: you can’t tickle yourself because our brain anticipates the sensation. We can also see that our body is well made. Every day, our brain sorts out the important sensations from the less important ones.