Do you ever wonder why some people respond to the tickle response and others don’t? Why can’t you tickle yourself? Above all, what even makes someone ticklish?
There are 2 theories behind it – one being that feeling ticklish evolved as a defence mechanism to protect vulnerable areas of the body, while the other is that tickling reinforces social bonding.
According to scientists, being tickled stimulates the hypothalamus of our brain, which is responsible for fight or flight response. As a result, we start laughing because of an autonomic emotional response, not necessarily because we’re having fun. The sensation of tickling acts as a danger to our body, especially body parts which have the most neurons, such as our neck or feet. However, as soon as the brain recognizes the tickle-attack is non-threatening, we release tension by laughing. Laughter is a natural stress reliever to restore balance and wellbeing. Studies also found that both pain and touch nerve receptors get triggered during tickling and people will laugh just as hard whether they’re being tickled by a person or a machine. According to psychologist Michael Titze, “Psychologically speaking, tickling leads to interference from the opposite impulses of closeness and escape. Neurologically speaking, we feel pain simultaneously which leads to tension that is released with uncontrollable laughter.”
Now, let’s come to the subject in question – why can’t we tickle ourselves? This is simply because we are not threatening enough to ourselves. For tickling to be effective, we need “Nervenkitzel” – the thrill of fear which the tickle attack from others provides. Titze also says that “If we tickle ourselves, the cerebrum (our cognitive reaction centre) interprets the sense of self-touch as non-threatening and deems it unimportant.”
To leave you off on a fun fact – did you know you can trick your brain by placing your hands on top of the hands of the person who’s tickling you? This allows your brain to predict the sensations and suppress the tickle response!
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Sources:
Dittrich, A. (2019). Why can’t we tickle ourselves? DW https://www.dw.com/en/why-cant-we-tickle-ourselves/a-50611488
Robson, D. (2015). Why can’t you tickle yourself? Bbc.com. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150109-why-you-cant-tickle-yourself
Buehner, M. J. (2016, May 20). Why we can’t tickle ourselves. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-we-cant-tickle-ourselves-59698
McDermott, A. (2016, December 20). What Causes the Tickle Response? Healthline; Healthline Media. https://www.healthline.com/health/why-are-people-ticklish
Bellamy, A. (2019, April 24). Why can’t we tickle ourselves? Medicalxpress.com; Medical Xpress. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-why-cant-we-tickle-ourselves.html
https://en-gb.facebook.com/thenakedscientists. (2020). Why can’t we tickle ourselves? Thenakedscientists.com. https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-features/why-cant-we-tickle-ourselves
Why can’t you tickle yourself? (2000, November 13). HowStuffWorks. https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/question511.htm
Article by Samrin Monami
