Skip to content
Million Whys
Why does trying to tickle yourself with a feather or a stick still fail to produce a ticklish sensation?
Your brain predicts the touch because you initiated the movement, so the sensation is cancelled.
The tool is not part of your body, so the brain treats the touch as coming from outside and cancels it anyway.
The brain only predicts touch for direct skin contact, so a tool-mediated touch bypasses the prediction.
