A tickle lab in the Netherlands is trying to unlock a mystery which has baffled the most brilliant minds for thousands of years.
Neuroscientist Konstantina Kilteni is working to define why people respond differently to being tickled and how come we can’t tickle ourselves.
Assistant Professor Kilteni, from Radboud University’s Donders Institute, said the questions had stumped the likes of Socrates and Charles Darwin over the ages, but needed to be taken more seriously.
“It is a complex interplay of motor, social, neurological, developmental and evolutionary aspects,” she said.
“If we know how tickling works at the brain level, it could provide a lot of insight into other topics in neuroscience.”
Assistant Professor Kilteni said tickling could strengthen the bond between parents and children, for instance, and we usually tickle our babies and children.
“But how does the brain process ticklish stimuli and what is the relationship with the development of the nervous system? By investigating this, you can learn more about brain development in children.”
She said research also showed that people with autism spectrum disorder perceived touches as more ticklish than people without autism spectrum disorder.
“Investigating this difference could provide insight into differences in the brains of people with autism spectrum disorder and people without and could help with getting knowledge about autism.”
Assistant Professor Kilteni said the fact a person could not tickle themselves was worth investigation.
“Apparently, our brain distinguishes ourselves from others, and because we know when and where we are going to tickle ourselves, the brain can switch off the tickling reflex in advance. But we don’t know what exactly happens in our brain when we are tickled.”
She said the various questions have not yet been answered because the scientific community is yet to define what tickling actually was.
“It is also difficult to compare between existing studies. When someone is tickled by another person, it is difficult to replicate that form of tickling exactly with another test subject.”
Assistant Professor Kilteni said that is why she set up the tickling lab, which contains a chair with a plate with two holes in it.
She said a person puts their feet through the holes and then a mechanical stick tickled their footsoles.
“That way, every tickle experiment is the same.”
Assistant Professor Kilteni then records exactly what happens in the brain and also immediately checks all other physical reactions, such as heart rate, sweating, breathing, or laughter and screaming reactions.
“By incorporating this method of tickling into a proper experiment, we can take tickling research seriously. Not only will we be able to truly understand tickling, but also our brains.”
Read the full report: The extraordinary enigma of ordinary tickle behavior: Why gargalesis still puzzles neuroscience.
