Researchers are also getting closer to an answer to the mystery of why you can’t tickle yourself.
In a Berlin neuroscience laboratory, experiments were carried out with volunteers last year phenomenon of tickling to explore more closely. To do this, six groups of two who were familiar with each other were positioned in such a way that one person was suddenly tickled on various parts of the body specified by the researchers. Reactions to this were captured by video cameras with high frame rate and microphones measured. Similar experiments have already been carried out in the past with animals such as rats. Attempts to quantify human behavior, on the other hand, have hardly been made.
Late audible response
As Ars Technica reports, several interesting insights might be gained from these experiments. When tickled, it came on average following 300 milliseconds to the first physical reactions, mostly with a smile. The first audible reactions came following 500 milliseconds. According to the researchers, this is remarkable because vocal responses to touch typically occur earlier, at around 320 milliseconds.
Touching yourself changes perception
In 70 percent of cases follow Laugh to the tickle. The volume correlated with the perceived intensity of the tickling sensation. Feet, armpits and neck proved to be the most sensitive parts of the body. As an experiment, test subjects were also asked to tickle yourself at the same timewhen tickled. It happened 25 percent fewer laughs. Responses to being tickled were delayed to 700 milliseconds. So trying to tickle yourself while being tickled negates a large part of the effect.
The trials should also shed more light on the mystery of why it is not possible to tickle yourself. This question has occupied people for thousands of years. Aristotle, Socrates, Galileo Galilei and Francis Bacon are among the researchers who did not find an answer. The Berlin team led by Michael Brecht from Humboldt University did not come up with a definitive explanation either.
dimming mechanism
After the experiments, however, Brecht suspects that it is one mechanism of the nervous system acts when touched almost switch off. If the mechanism didn’t exist, people would laugh constantly when they touched areas that are usually sensitive to tickle attacks.
According to Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at University College London, this explanation is plausible. Dimming Effects also occur elsewhere in humans, for example while talking. While speaking, the ability to listen and understand is diminished. So the mechanism might also dim tickle responses if you touch yourself while doing it.
