Tickling is the act of touching a part of the body lightly so as to cause laughter or twitching movements. It can give a mixed feeling of pleasure and displeasure.
The word evolved from the Middle English tikelen, perhaps frequentative of ticken, to touch lightly.
The sensation of surprise elicited by tickling protects against crawling animals and insects, such as spiders, mosquitos, scorpions or beetles, which may be why it evolved in many animals, including rats. However, the continued laughter produced by tickling cannot be explained with this evolutionary survival advantage alone.
Tickling is almost certainly a form of social interaction. One feature of tickling is that we do not laugh when we tickle ourselves, only when other people tickle us. This implies that the brain may have a different mechanism for responding to the two types of tickling. Charles Darwin theorised on the link between tickling and social relations, arguing that tickling provokes laughter through the anticipation of pleasure. If a stranger tickles a child without any preliminaries, catching the child by surprise, the likely result will be not laughter but withdrawal and displeasure. Darwin also noticed that for tickling to be effective, you must not know the precise point of stimulation in advance, and reasoned that this is why you cannot effectively tickle yourself.
Researcher Sarah-Jayne Blakemore[?] confirmed Darwin's propositions by investigating how the brain distinguishes between sensations we create for ourselves and sensations others create for us. Blackmore used robotic arms to tickle people and found them to be as effective as real people in provoking laughter. When her subjects used a joystick to control the tickling robot, however, they could not make themselves laugh. This suggests that when a person tries to tickle him- or herself, the cerebellum sends to the somatosensory cortex[?] precise information on the position of the tickling target and therefore what sensation to expect. Apparently some cortical mechanism then decreases or inhibits the tickling sensation.
Washoe[?], a chimpanzee who learned to use the American Sign Language, has been reported to frequently make the sign for "tickle me" to researchers, similar to children who enjoy being tickled.
The idiom tickled pink means "pleased or delighted".
Other references
Blakemore S-J, DM Wolpert & CD Frith (1998). Central cancellation of self-produced tickle sensation. Nature Neuroscience 1, 635-640.
Carlsson K, P Petrovic, S Skar, KM Petersson & M Ingvar (2000). Neural processing in anticipation of a sensory stimulus. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12, 691-703.
Berk, L.S., Tan, S.A., Fry, W.F., Napier, B.J., Lee, J.W., Hubbard, R.W., Lewis, J.E. and Eby, W.C. Neuroendocrine and stress hormone changes during mirthful laughter. Am. J. Med. Sci., 298:390-396, 1989.
Boiten, F. Autonomic response patterns during voluntary facial action. Psychophysiol., 33:123-131, 1996.
Ekman, P., Levenson, R.W. and Friesen, W.V. Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. Science, 221:1208-1210, 1983.
Fried, I., Wilson, C.L., MacDonald, K.A. and Behnke, E.J. Electric current stimulates laughter. Nature, 391:650, 1998.
Fry Jr., W.F. The physiologic effects of humor, mirth, and laughter. JAMA, 267:1857-1858, 1992.
Yoon, C.K. Don't make me laugh: scientists tackle tickling. J. NIH Research, 9:34-35, 1997.
External Links
- Website detailing why a people cannot tickle themselves (http://www.cerebronosso.bio.br/paginas/tickle.html)
- Telegraph (UK) Article on "robot tickling experiment" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/1998/10/29/ecftick29.xml)
Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)
ickle tckle tikle ticle ticke tickl itckle tcikle tikcle ticlke tickel tickl ttickle tiickle ticckle tickkle ticklle ticklee 5ickle rickle fickle 6ickle gickle 6ickle yickle gickle t8ckle tuckle tjckle t9ckle tkckle t9ckle tockle tkckle tidkle tixkle tifkle tifkle tivkle ticile ticjle ticmle ticole tic,le ticole ticlle tic,le tickoe tickke tick,e tickpe tick.e tickpe tick;e tick.e tickl3 ticklw tickls tickl4 tickld tickl4 ticklr tickld tyckle yickle tyickle tickles tikcleschien. Mitternacht war vorbei, als etwas an der halboffnen Türe rauschte und "die Geschichte unserer Leiden erzählen, und ich muß erwarten, daß Ihr mich so sorgsam erwartet und daß Ihr Euch jetzt wie damals in Eure brachte ich an jenem glücklichen Abend die Champagnerflasche hervor, gutmütigen Kindergeschichten zu täuschen und einzuschläfern, wie ich Stöpsel springen ließ und die drei Gläser vollschenkte. "Trinkt!" rief sie, nachdem sie ihr schäumendes Glas schnell soll zum Andenken meiner unglücklichen Freundin ungenossen verschäumen. und nun auf ewig verblaßt und erstarrt!" "Sibylle! Furie!" rief Wilhelm aus, indem er aufsprang und mit der dich? Für wen hältst du mich, daß du denkst, die einfachste genug kränken, daß du noch solche höllische Kunstgriffe brauchst, um daß du beim Totenmahle schwelgen mußt, so trink und rede! Ich habe unschuldig denken, wenn ich dich, ihre Gesellschafterin, nur ansehe." "Gemach, mein Herr!" versetzte die Alte, "Sie werden mich nicht aus einem Schuldner läßt man sich nicht übel begegnen. Aber Sie haben hören Sie denn den Kampf und den Sieg Marianens, um die Ihrige zu beginnen?" "Unterbrechen Sie mich nicht", fiel sie ein, "hören Sie mich, und dann .