Search results for "Tickling"

2014

The contrast between self- and other-produced tickles, as a special case of sensory attenuation for self-produced actions, has long been a target of empirical research. While in standard wake states it is nearly impossible to tickle oneself, there are interesting exceptions. Notably, subjects awakened from REM (rapid eye movement-) sleep dreams are able to tickle themselves. So far, however, the question of whether it is possible to tickle oneself and be tickled by another in the dream state has not been investigated empirically or addressed from a theoretical perspective. Here, we report the results of an explorative web-based study in which participants were asked to rate their sensations…

Tickle contagion in the somatosensory cortex

2021

AbstractThe cellular mechanisms of emotional contagion are unknown. We investigated tickle contagion and the underlying neuronal representations in rats. We recorded trunk somatosensory cortex activity of observer rats while they received tickling, audio-visual playback of tickling footage, and while they witnessed tickling of demonstrator rats. Observers vocalized, and showed “Freudensprünge” (“joy jumps”) during witnessing live tickling, while they showed little behavioral responses to playbacks. A fraction of trunk somatosensory neurons responded to both direct and witnessed tickling in action-specific manner. The correlation between direct and witnessed tickling responses increased towa…

Behavioral and Cortical Correlates of Self-Suppression, Anticipation, and Ambivalence in Rat Tickling.

2019

The relationship between tickling, sensation, and laughter is complex. Tickling or its mere anticipation makes us laugh, but not when we self-tickle. We previously showed rat somatosensory cortex drives tickling-evoked vocalizations and now investigated self-tickle suppression and tickle anticipation. We recorded somatosensory cortex activity while tickling and touching rats and while rats touched themselves. Allo-touch and tickling evoked somatotopic cortical excitation and vocalizations. Self-touch induced wide-ranging inhibition and vocalization suppression. Self-touch also suppressed vocalizations and cortical responses evoked by allo-touch or cortical microstimulation. We suggest a glo…

Can loss of sensory attenuation be accurately demonstrated using two effectors simultaneously?

2015

Sir, Recently, Parees and colleagues (2014) compared patients with functional (psychogenic) movement disorders and healthy subjects who were asked to match a force delivered to their left finger by pressing on it directly, or by operating a joystick to press down on it, with the other hand. They observed that healthy subjects generated more force than required when pressing directly on their finger (compared with using the joystick), whereas patients did not. They interpreted and discussed this result as a loss of sensory attenuation that typically occurs in healthy subjects during self-generated movements and suggested by return, that it illustrates an altered sense of agency for the patie…