why cant we tickle ourselves ?

Answer 1

Why can't you tickle yourself?


Most of us have a ticklish spot somewhere on our bodies, and it is usually pretty easy to find. For some it's just above the knee, for others it's the back of the neck, and some of us go into fits of laughter if someone grabs our sides. Laughing when another person tickles you is a natural reaction. Scientists have discovered that the feeling experienced when we are tickled causes us to panic and is a natural defense to little creepy crawlers like spiders and bugs. Slight tickles from insects can send a chill through your body letting you know something is crawling on you.
That same ticklish feeling sends us into a state of panic and elicits a response of uncontrollable laughter if a person tickles us. It's the moment that you least expect to be tickled and are that causes you to feel extremely uneasy and panicked, which leads to the most intense ticklish feeling. Even if you do know that you are about to be tickled, the fear and unease of someone touching and possibly hurting you causes you to laugh. Some people are so ticklish that they begin laughing even before they are touched.

So, if someone else's touch can tickle us, why can't we tickle ourselves? Much of the explanation for this question is still unknown, but research has shown that the brain is trained to know what to feel when a person moves or performs any function. We aren't aware of a lot of the sensations generated by our movements. For example, you probably don't pay much attention to your vocal cords when you speak. For the same reason, we can't tickle ourselves. If we grab our sides in an attempt to tickle ourselves, our brain anticipates this contact from the hands and prepares itself for it. By taking away the feeling of unease and panic, the body no longer responds the same as it would if someone else were to tickle us.

Brain scientists at the University College London have pinpointed the cerebellum as the part of the brain that prevents us from self-tickling. The cerebellum is the region located at the base of the brain that monitors our movements. It can distinguish expected sensations from unexpected sensations. An expected sensation would be the amount of pressure your fingers apply to your keyboard while typing. An unexpected sensation would be someone sneaking up behind you and tapping you on the shoulder. While the brain discards the sensation of typing, it pays a lot of attention to someone tapping on your shoulder. The difference in reactions from expected to unexpected is a built-in response that probably developed in early human history to detect predators.

Although we are not able to tickle ourselves unassisted, there is a way to trick the brain by using a robot tickler. That's right. With all of the know-how of science and technology, a robot has been designed to allow people to tickle themselves. The same British scientists mentioned above have designed a machine that enables you to tickle yourself by remote control. To use the machine, a person lies on their back with their eyes shut. The robot is located near the person with a piece of soft foam attached to a plastic rod that is controlled by a remote control joystick. When the person activates the rod, the robot will react after a short delay. Even with delays as short as a fifth of a second from the time the person activates the rod until the robot tickled the person's hand, subjects have described the sensation as the same as another person tickling them. So, in a sense, you could tickle yourself with a robotic assistant.

Answer 2

This was explained on s TV show in the UK.

We can't tickle ourselves because the brain will know the sensation is coming. The tickle feeling is there to let us know that something is crawling on our skin. That's why it tickles when an insect is crawling up our arm. However, if the brain is pre-warned that something will touch the skin, the brain will send a signal telling the tickle sensors not to fire on contact.

There is however, one place where i tis possible to tickle yourself. Here's how you do it. Open your mouth and rub a finger on the roof of the inside of your mouth. You will eventually come across a section which is very sensitive to touch.

Answer 3

All mammals have grooming rituals. I suspect that we've gone down a pathway where we get all the emotional and physical benefits of grooming in tiny, very intense bursts.

Otherwise known as 'tickling'.

Since grooming is essentially a social activity, self-grooming is a contradiction in terms.

I know we can tickle the roof of our own mouth, though - not sure where that fits into my theory... and, you know what? It's possible other people *can't* tickle us there! When's the last time you collapsed, giggling, during a french kiss...?

I've always found '2 thumbs to the armpits (often via the ribs)' to be an ideal way out of those misunderstandings where you're just dancing, and the other guy is on his way to more - it's the very opposite of encouraging, but he ends up with a smile on his face, and finds it really hard not to like you.

Nature's way of saying 'let's just be friends'.

Hugs, cuddles, and a gentle brush of your third rib...

Helen

Answer 4

I can tickle my own feet.
Same as another person who answered earlier. I can't scratch them, or even dry them with a towel because it tickles so much.

I can't tickle any other part of myself though.

The reason is because the nerves in your fingers are in sync with the nerves in the part of the body you are trying to tickle. Your brain feels the touch in your fingers at the same time as it feels the touching of you ribs or whatever. The two sensations are a match, so the brain cancels out any tickling.

The tickling is your brain telling you that something alien is touching you... why it reduces you to a giggling wreck instead of preparing you for a possible assault I'm not quite sure.

Answer 5

The human brain anticipates unimportant sensations, such as your own touch, so it can focus on important input like, say, a tarantula crawling up your neck.

The results might explain why it's hard to tickle yourself, scientists said today.

In the study, 30 people used a finger on their right hand to touch a finger on their left hand by tapping a device place directly over the left finger and could instantly relay the tap. The computer-controlled device could introduce delays of varying length before the left finger was tapped. Researchers used another button to introduce externally generated taps.

Based on the test subjects' reports of what they felt, the sensation in the left finger was less during window of time centered on the instant any self-tapping would have occurred naturally.

Tap, tap, tap

Study participants touched a finger on their left hand (LH) by pressing a button with a finger on the right hand (RH). The scientists had a button, too (far right).

Credit: University College London




Bottom line: When their brains expected a tap and the tap came as expected, the brain noticed it less.

"It lends support to the theory that the brain is constantly predicting what is about to happen, what sensations it's about to receive," said Paul Bays of the Institute of Neurology at University College London.

Why do our minds work this way?

The information we get from our senses is always a little out of date, because it takes time for the electrical signals to travel from the finger, ear or eye to the brain.

"Although this delay is only a fraction of a second, that is long enough to make impossible anything that involves accurate control over our bodies or moving objects," such as catching a ball," Bays told LiveScience. "By combining what our senses are telling us with a prediction of what we expect to be happening we can get an accurate picture of the current state of our bodies and the outside world

Answer 6

You only laugh when you are tickled because you are surprised and not expecting it.
An experiment was done where people pressed a button which would tickle them. When they were ticked immediately on pressing the button they didn't laugh, but when there was a slight delay between pressing the button and being tickled they laughed.

Answer 7

Most people are unable to tickle themselves, even if they can be driven to tears by the slightest touch from someone else.
This is because the brain tracks the movement of your hand and anticipates the moment when it will make contact, and therefore there is no element of surprise. The brain distinguishes between what it expects to happen and things that come as a complete surprise.

Answer 8

I am not as learned in these things as other answerers seem to be.
However I notice that if you tickle yourself with a feather it does feel a little ticklish whereas if you use your fingers it is only slightly ticklish.
Could it be that when you touch yourself, the brain gets the two signals (eg from the area tickled and the finger tip doing it) simultaneously and adjusts the awareness of sensation accordingly.

Answer 9

Here goes my best shot: Our CNS, or Central Nervous System, is comprised of our brain and spinal cord. These are responsible for notifying the body of any action carried out from or to your body, by sending a message to your brain through your spinal cord. When we are tickled, the receptors on your skin (which act as a feeling sensor in a way, detecting heat, movement and pressure) are activated unexpectedly, by someone or something which, is, tickling us. This takes the CNS some time to understand what is happening, and as long as this foreign source is activating the receptors, it is in fact tickling us and the CNS has to send a message to understand what is happening, giving us this wonderful sensation of tickling. You could also refer to how we can't easily surprise ourselves, it's again a foreign source which activates a receptor. This what I believe is right, please email me if you are unsure of anything I have just mentioned! Hope to have been of assistance on this great question

Answer 10

We cannot tickle ourselves beacause reacting to tickling is a defense mechanism, we have it to warn us of when something touches us while we are asleep it instantly wakes us but when we tickle ourselves our brain knows that we are in no danger.