Why do things tickle

[skaught]

I don't understand what it is. What is creating the sensation of being tickled. Why does it make us laugh? It also seems to me that children are far more ticklish than adults. I remember being horribly ticklish when I was a kid, but now there are only about two spots that tickle me. My right hip, which is really more painful than tickly, and the bottoms of my feet, which are terribly ticklish.

So, my question is, what the hell is it?

 

[cosmictraveler]

•touch (a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements


In 1897, psychologists G. Stanley Hall and Arthur Allin described a "tickle" as two different types of phenomena.[2] One type caused by very light movement across the skin. This type of tickle, called knismesis, generally does not produce laughter and is sometimes accompanied by an itching sensation.

Another type of tickle is the laughter inducing, "heavy" tickle, produced by repeatedly applying pressure to "ticklish" areas, and is known as gargalesis. Such sensations can be pleasurable or exciting, but are sometimes considered highly unpleasant, particularly in the case of relentless heavy tickling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickling

 

[skaught]

Ok, but why does it create that sensation?

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Ok, but why does it create that sensation?

Did you not read the article he linked to?

 

[skaught]

Did you not read the article he linked to?

I did after I posted yeah.

 

[John99]

Nerve endings.