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I get the skin surface sensation like I’ve brushed against something soft and delicate that isn’t my own intention, but it is my own body so I realize what’s ha

I get the skin surface sensation like I’ve brushed against something soft and delicate that isn’t my own intention, but it is my own body so I realize what’s happening processing the same moment. I don’t have a laugh response or the kind of abandon I remember in childhood being tickled. It’s like a shiver or goosebumps and a mental giggle when I realize what I did to me.

Izkata 4y ago
The laugh response is what the aricle/researchers and everyone else means when they say "you can't tickle yourself", I'm pretty sure most people don't realize this and are, like you, referring to just the skin sensation. > As planned, Subject 1 couldn’t help but laugh. The fact that they couldn’t help it is what has drawn Michael Brecht, leader of the research group from Humboldt University, to the neuroscience of tickling and play. It’s funny, but it’s also deeply mysterious—and understudied. People tend to come up with a variety of words to describe just the skin sensation when challenged on this (just scroll through other responses in this thread now that they've started responding), and "tickle" just seems to be a fallback when they don't think about it.