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Why Can't a Person Tickle Himself?

sciam.com — The answer lies at the back of the brain in an area called the cerebellum, which is involved in monitoring movements. Our studies at University College London have shown that the cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does.

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  • cwshea, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Actually kinda interesting.
    • tomi, on 10/12/2007, -23/+15I thought it was rather obvious. =/
    • davidsmero, on 10/12/2007, -18/+1word
    • undersky, on 10/12/2007, -38/+7er....masturbation/sex is very different than self-tickle/someone-else-tickle. some people think masturbation and sex are both good in different ways, especially when they have sex with girls who don't do any work, then it gets tired after an hour or so, so they much prefer getting a hj by her. u shall try mutual masturbation too, just not at the same time (cuz of the distraction hinders orgasm)
    • jord, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24@undersky:
      you sound like a 15 year old, and if you are then you are excused, however if you find yourself even slightly older... shape up man
    • Gisterogue, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30But I CAN tickle myself. I'm not kidding. Surely there is someone else out there who can tickle themselves too?
    • undersky, on 10/12/2007, -20/+3Gisterogue:
      well, maybe u are especially gifted, lol

      jord:
      sorry, due to privacy concern i cannot honor your comment with a response, but thank you anyway.
    • t3hNinj4, on 10/12/2007, -6/+48@linkedList

      So sex feels even better than masturbation! Sweet!

      Twenty and lonely, by the way. I need to get one of those girlfriends everyone's always talking about.
      The life of a ninja is a solitary one :(
    • InternetUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@Gisterogue

      Me too. Sort of. Make your tongue into a point and gently stroke it over the roof of your mouth. aaaaaargh.
    • 0o0Moylan0o0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12i have no trouble tickling the bottom of my own feet..
    • Xanin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2sweet, I study at UCL, there's always interesting stuff coming out of it. although I can tickle my own feet :/
    • 8300dvo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1just invented a new pick up line:D
      'baby i'm so unpredictable i can tickle myself'
      check that *****, even the cerebellum cant predict my actions baby
  • trghpy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16So why doesn't this work when I tickle my nose hair and start sneasing for hours.
  • weizilla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31I can tickle myself....
    • fwedwic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Mutant :P
    • bbhh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9me too.. buried as inaccurate?... just kidding
    • Gisterogue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ah didn't see this thread. It's true tough, there are people who can. I am extremely ticklish, more than anyone I know; I find being tickled extremely discomforting. When I tickle myself in certain areas like the soles o my feet, my palsm, my gums, the top of my mouth (yuck!) and other places, admittedly it isn't as bad as other people doing it, but ys, it really does tickle.
    • Ruckgesicht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As can I. In fact it can get annoying since I might go to scratch an itch and end up tickling myself.
    • mikepictor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so can I, actually I'm one of the only I know who can tickle me. I'm not very ticklish, but there is that sweet spot, for me around the side near the kidneys, and I can hit it every time if I want to.

      I don't generally, other than when I feel the need to debunk theories like this.
    • kingfoot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can tickle me.

      what's wrong with me!?!?
  • LavaHot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+38This is also why getting a hand job is so much better than masturbation.
    • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22Handjobs... poor bastard
    • Virak, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4s/poor/lucky/

      Remember, this is the Internet.
    • mikie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18have you ever given yourself a stranger?
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17@"This is also why getting a hand job is so much better than masturbation."

      But that doesn't explain why it feels like someone else is doing it if you switch hands.
    • drilldown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@panique

      Left brain/right brain. Now, is the left hand female?
    • WraithX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3When I saw the topic I knew that it wouldn't be long before someone said that :) 10 points for honesty!
    • LavaHot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5A stranger is where you sit on your hand so it turns numb. Thank you Scrubs!
    • cphuntington97, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1punkrockxtian doesn't know that 90% of your cerebellum controls... your hands. You might be surprised what they're capable of.
    • beerunifies, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@LavaHot

      Chappelle > Scrubs :)
  • aNotSoNiceTroll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+36I'm tickling myself right now...

    Oh wait, that's not tickling.
  • bonemachine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10good thing that doesn't work for masturbation.
    • UberNick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Ever heard of that trick Andrew Dice Clay calls 'the stranger'?
      "So you sit on your hand till it gets real numb, right..."
    • Wildthing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'd hate to think what the world would be like if that were true. I doubt humanity would be able to have gotten past cavemen.
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -15/+5I first read that headline as "Why Can't a Person Tackle Himself?"

    Must be the alcohol!
    • Chingmiester, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23Alcohol or not, no one wants to read about people misreading the article.
  • wazzledoozle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I can tickle my own feet, in fact its hard to wash them cause it tickles so much. I wonder if eventually our brains will figure out that masturbation doesnt = more people, and make masturbation not feel like anything.
    • pastasauce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10If that happens, watch the depression rate in men sky rocket.
    • xobecide, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3And the divorce rate drop.
    • akzidenzgrotesk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@pastasauce

      not just in men!
  • mem0ryburn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6yeh, learned this from Bill Nye
    • Gatesophile, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5dugg up for mentioning Bill Nye. love him.
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3The pseudo-science in this article is completely wrong...as is all the pseudo- science claiming to understand anything psychological!
    When I was a little kid, I used to be unable to touch the soles of my feet, when thinking of tickling them....
    If I touched them, it totally tickled, and was unbearable.

    So, I did the basic experiment, as a little kid, and experientially got quite a different result than those phony scientists with their big money grants to support their pathetic BS!

    @ wazzledoozle Damn you beat me by about three minutes with the feet tickling report!
    But your claim just supports my findings!

    Fsck Pseudo-scientific-fake psychologist liars!
    • mem0ryburn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3dumb kid 1, phony scientists 0

      :rollseyes:
    • zephc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@WaterDragon:
      Yeah! Down with the educated stupid and evil dumbasses, ignoring Cubic Creation.

      lolz. I think Travolta and Cruise are waiting for you back at the compound.
    • goodoldharris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3WaterDragon:

      Relax dude. You've got a good point but it could just be the way the article was written. Instead of saying "why a person can't tickle himself", it probably should have said "why most people are less ticklish when they tickle themselves".

      But you have a good point - why not send the researcher an email (a NICE email) and point out your childhood experiment? Here's her homepage: http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/sblakemore/
      (If you email her, I suggest she will be more receptive to your point if you don't call her a dumbass.)
    • Arbus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Your Thetan levels are off the charts, my man!
    • joeTaco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4dugg down for writing "fsck"
  • VgMasta, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Heh, guess I'VE got milk.





    Don't digg me down!
  • TheFr00n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This article is rubbish. You absolutely can tickle yourself. You're just not sensitive to tickling everywhere.
  • grendel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1certainly does not apply to arousal.

    • drilldown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Never got a handjob from someone else then?

      It's Digg, everyone's learning. :-)
  • pyrotix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11The real question is: Why can't a person tickle herself?
  • YourEGO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm sorry, but it's kind of a well known fact. Cool though, pretty cool ;-)
  • BurstIntoFlames, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This Took Scientists!?
  • goodoldharris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"the cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does"

    This is the same language used in the article, but it's worded really poorly. The brain can predict sensations regardless of whether they are caused by me or something else. I'm 100% certain of it. (Although I suppose it may not be the cerebellum.)

    The rest of the article seems to contain the real discovery: "Further studies using robots showed that the presence of a small delay between your own movement and the resulting tickle can make the sensation feel tickly." That's kind of interesting, and it makes sense that you could more accurately predict the timing of the sensation when you're causing the sensation yourself.

  • cuoops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is sensational!!
  • Holyfool19, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Finally serious and useful science! Was getting tired of all this A.I.D.S. and Cancer research getting nowhere.
  • Shenaniganz08, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Actually this has been recently being proven wrong, with studies that were conducted @ UCLA.

    I graduated w/ a Cognitive Science Minor so I learned about this last year ( 2006). The information from that paper was from information from 2003.

    Certain spots ( back of the knee, bottom of your feet, etc) are still ticklish even self induced ( studies were done using a feather )

    On the most part "tickling" and being "ticklish" are top-down processes ( prefrontal cortex) , you're more likely to be ticklish from people you know ( or like) than from a stranger.
    • spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4A feather would move in an unpredictable way - bending and flicking when brushed against the skin for example - meaning that the brain cannot predict the movements, making it somewhere in between tickling yourself and being tickled. If anything what you're saying supports this article.

      Guess common sense trumps your Cognitive Science Minor, sorry
  • Shenaniganz08, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2grr i tried to edit my comment but failed

    I meant to say just "cortex" ( somatosensory region) than prefontal cortex

    stupid IE,
  • Shenaniganz08, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1nvm
  • organdonersteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11you can tickle yourself. rub your finger along the roof of your mouth.
  • SSCrow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One of my friends is ticklish from like 2 feet away. All you had to do was pretend to poke him and he would freak.

    How do those scientists explain this?
    • Gatesophile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1skin sensitivity?
    • 3RNC77, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Hey... If my friends "pretended to poke me" I'd freak out too! I think scientists call it being Hetrosexual.

      :)
    • DubSnipe, on 06/06/2008, -0/+0Yeah, I do that too. I'd like an explanation too!
  • tyIerdurden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0maybe tickling has to something to do with "the element of surprise"
  • 3RNC77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Thus why "Tickle Himself Elmo" failed miserably
  • Badfish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So does this explain why slapping myself doesn't hurt as bad as if someone slapped me with the same amount of force?

    Reminds me of the schoolyard expression "see? it doesn't hurt." after the accuser slaps himself to prove the slap he gave to his buddy didn't hurt, when in actuality, it most likely FELT like it hurt more.

    I'm sure it would hurt even worse if I were to close my eyes and wait for the slap at any time. Kind of like facing against a wall when you know someone will be throwing a tennis ball at you.
  • gojeda, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Umm, the article is full of ***** because I can tickle myself and many others can as well.

    BURIED as inaccurate.
  • anomalya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1would if u distracted the brain while trying to tickle yourself. then it mite work
  • sladek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i was actually reading about why you can't tickle yourself yesterday, in New Scientist
  • datakid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1cos more than half of us are women?
  • naio21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This submission should have been made by webtickle.
  • Beerduck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Who says you can't tickle yourself? I know I can...
  • codemonkey2841, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1An interesting read, however I have a roommate that can tickle herself. Hell, I can tickle her without even being in the same room. All I need to do is describe the sensation and she starts losing it.
  • Xinareiaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah...this is weird. I have always been able to tickle myself. Mostly on my feet.
  • Dustin00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What? I can tickle myself in 4 places very easilly.

    Dumb.
  • scjones, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0You can its called masturbation.
  • selrahc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can tickle myself... The bottom of my feet feet and roof of my mouth I am able to tickle myself, and my right inner thigh is also extremely ticklish... I think that might be from muscle damage or something though.
  • asdfasdf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tickle means to give yourself pleasure or put your life in test. I think so that you can tickle yourself and others also. Example:you play with a baby and you start itching your feet and he becomes happy and for adults sex is the best example you touch yourself if there is no one and you really want that badly so you start doing with touching yourself. I think you can do it i never did that but i know many people do that until they release.
  • zeazzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does anyone have a link to the original or extended video that is not YouTube? (YouTube is blocked here at work.)
  • bradmac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I read this as "Why can't a person tAckle himself?"

    Very confusing for a few seconds. The logistics would be incredible...
  • MinDistortion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I bet it is possible to tackle yourself.
  • westoncampbell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I already knew this... It's common sense (well, for the educated people)... I might not have had scientific proof of this but when you take a few seconds to think about it, it just seems obvious.
  • unicronband, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I want a tickle robot!
  • dotNorma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A good educated guess landed me at this result a while back.
  •  

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