The Weird Science Behind Tickling

Some very important neuroscience research has concluded that rats both LOVE to be tickled and respond to tickling by laughing. Rats: they're just like us! And if you've never heard a rat laugh or even giggle, that's totally normal because rats laugh at ultrasonic frequencies. In layman's terms, this means their hysterical chuckles are emitted

Some very important neuroscience research has concluded that rats both LOVE to be tickled and respond to tickling by laughing. Rats: they're just like us! And if you've never heard a rat laugh or even giggle, that's totally normal because rats laugh at ultrasonic frequencies. In layman's terms, this means their hysterical chuckles are emitted at a pitch humans can't even hear. Not even Christina Aguilera.

These very important rat tickling experiments concluded that tickling can fool brains into getting over innately programmed fears. According to this study, it may be possible to have your pesky anxiety literally tickled right out of you. Here's the not so fun part: to prove this theory, researchers zapped a whole bunch of rats for two weeks after ruining their eardrums by playing a horrifying tone which seems like something straight out of Mars Attacks. Remember Pavlov's dogs? It's basically like that, except with rats.

Based on previous research, the scientists speculated that if they tickled the rats prior to torturing them, they would develop new neurological connections in their hippocampuses. Thanks to their tickling sessions, these new connections would allow their tiny rodent brains to form happy new memories and ultimately no longer fear the treachery of the electric shocks. Rats:1, Fear: 0.

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