“Tickling is one of the most poorly understood forms of touch,” said study author Michael Brecht of Berlin’s Bernstein Center.

🐀 For the first time, scientists pinpointed where ticklishness lives in the brain in the trunk of the somatosensory cortex, the part usually linked to touch.

Even more fascinating? Tickling depends on mood. Happy rats respond with laughter-like squeaks, but stressed ones don’t just like humans!

😁 “Tickling is one of the most poorly understood forms of touch,” said study author Michael Brecht of Berlin’s Bernstein Center. Why we laugh when tickled, or why it’s funnier when someone else does it, remains a mystery but it may hold clues to human cognition.