No. 52, GK : Why do we feel tickling? #SignLanguage #Deaf #GK

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donsmith2206
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Hello. Greetings from Boonary. In today's GK topic, we will learn, "Why do we feel tickling?" What makes us laugh when we're tickled? Watch ahead.

A tickle is a type of body response that automatically makes a person laugh or curl up. People are most ticklish on their underarms, waists, ribs, neck and the bottoms of their feet. Some people are more ticklish than others. Some people may be ticklish on certain parts of the body but not others. For instance, one person could be very ticklish on their feet, but not under their armpits. How this difference? Researchers are still trying to find out but haven't reached a logical reasoning yet. Do you know that a tickle can be of two types. What are they? Watch ahead.

A tickle is actually of two types: one is called Knismesis which is like a light skin irritation, such as a fly or bug walking on the skin and that sensation triggers an urge to brush it away either on our hands, neck or sometimes it's just a sort of soothing relief to relieve us of the itch. A person can tickle themselves in this way but that doesn't cause any laughter. This is very common in animals too, like if a fly lands on their body, they twitch their ears with their paws or whip it with their tail. The other type is called Gargalesis which is more intense tickling, the kind that causes people to laugh when someone repeatedly touches a sensitive area of the body. This type of tickle is usually happening when we're caught by surprise by some other person. Hence we don't feel tickled if we do this by ourselves. Some people do not enjoy being tickled, but it can still cause a laughter reflex. Why does that happen? Watch ahead.

In 2013, a group of scientists placed people in a brain scanner to perform experiments that would help them find the reason for laughter during a tickle. They tickled the feet of the people. They found that when the skin is touched signals are sent to the brain and an area of the brain called the hypothalamus was active when tickling generated laughter. This part of the brain controls our emotional responses like anger, happiness, sorrow, love etc. When a person is tickled, this part gets stimulated. So the hypothalamus in conjunction with the like the somatosensory cortex and the anterior cingulated cortex gives an automatic reflex-like response to push away the cause of the tickle to help protect these areas. Laughing when being tickled doesn't always indicate enjoyment. It's the same way that a person may cry when cutting onions without necessarily feeling sad. It's just a body reflex to shed tears. Same is the case with a tickle. The next time you're tickled, see if you can control your laughter. You can try this for yourself.
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Tickling and Bondage
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