If you’ve been trying to tickle yourself for years, leave it. Really. It is impossible that you get it .
A study at University College London has shown that a part of the brain can predict the sensations when we cause it ourselves, but not when someone else do it. This is explained by the neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore at Scientific American: “When someone tries to tickle himself, the cerebellum predicts the sensation, thus canceling the response from other areas of the body to the tickles.”
In other words, the cerebellum – the part of the brain that controls the body’s motor control – knows exactly where your hand is, and also knows that you will try to tickle it. The prediction of the sensation nullifies it completely, because it is no longer a surprise or something uncontrollable. Your brain knows that it is not a threat, then it does not react.
In fact, you could get it with robots. Studies have shown that a delay between the movement of your hand and the resulting tingling can make you feel the yearned feeling.
In fact, the higher the delay, the more tickling you will feel. So, can you tick yourself? Yes, but only if one is willing to invest money in a pair of robots.
