Why the Heck Are We Ticklish?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateOKAY ↓ More info and sources below ↓ We’re on PATREON now! Join the community ►► https://www.patreon.com/itsokaytobesmart SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a video! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub I’ve explained a lot of weird bodily functions on this show but there’s one that we haven’t covered that’s always confused me: Tickling. What are you for, tickling? What’s the point of you? Why do you exist? Why do you make us laugh even though we hate you? Let’s dig into our evolutionary past to try and find an answer. References: Laughing, tickling, and speech http://untiredwithloving.org/dhahak.pdf Pathogenic laughter https://n.neurology.org/content/64/12/2154.short Tickling review http://charris.ucsd.edu/articles/Harris_EHB2012.pdf Darwin-Hecker http://charris.ucsd.edu/articles/Harris&Christenfeld_CE1997.pdf Early thoughts https://www.jstor.org/stable/1411471?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Neural correlates of laughter https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/23/6/1280/426218 Neural correlates of laughter https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/126/10/2121/314497 Experience of pleasure https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6877978 Tickling and laughter https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030105119090023P Ticklish rats https://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6313/757 Social laughter and pain https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2011.1373 Special thanks to our Brain Trust Patrons: AlecZero Oliver and Arden Bradshaw Brent M. Diego Lombeida Dustin Ernesto Silva George Gladding Marcus Tuepker Ron Kakar vincbis ----------- Join us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/itsokaytobesmart Twitter http://www.twitter.com/DrJoeHanson http://www.twitter.com/okaytobesmart Instagram http://www.instagram.com/DrJoeHanson http://www.instagram.com/okaytobesmart Merch https://store.dftba.com/collections/its-okay-to-be-smart Facebook https://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmartpbs/