researchers at Humboldt University of
Berlin have been trying to find out what
happens in the brain when we are tickled
in 1999 scientists found young rats also
vocalize when they’re tickled are they
actually laughing what does a rat’s
voice sound like the typical hearing
range of a human is 20 Hertz to 20
kilohertz rats vocalize at twenty to a
hundred kilohertz they make long calls
at 22 kilohertz when they’re scared or
annoyed and when they’re happy they make
short calls at 50 kilohertz for example
when they interact with other rats and
they are given food a bit like when
human voices go higher when we’re
excited or having fun so here’s the
sound a rat makes if you tickle its back
the sound has been converted to a lower
frequency that we humans can hear but
the source frequency is mainly 50
kilohertz apparently the rat likes being
tickled not just because of the
frequency of its calls but because when
the tickling stops the rat doesn’t turn
away but looks to see where the hand has
gone rats recognise the researchers hand
as their playmate and approach the hand
to be tickled you more eventually they
start chasing the hand rapidly while
vocalizing at 50 kilohertz signals from
the body surface reach a brain area
called the somatosensory cortex like a
map of the entire body with distinct
regions for each body part trunk front
legs back legs the researcher tickled
the rats and measured the activity in
the trunk region which is the most
ticklish part of a rat’s body here is
the activity of neurons in the trunk
region when a rat is tickled thin
vertical lines indicate electrical
activity in the new
retinal cells
signals from the trunk are being sent to
this brain region does this neural
activity represent ticklishness if it is
the case activation of these neurons
without actually tickling the body must
be enough for the rat to feel ticklish
to test it the researcher stimulated the
neurons electrically
the rat emits short calls at 50
kilohertz when it’s brain is stimulated
thus the researcher found out that
ticklishness is represented by activity
of the neurons in the somatosensory
cortex I am worried that a lot of these
guys are disappearing and nowhere else
on earth dis dis organism exists you
have to go to the backs of valleys or
distant Ridge lines or isolated mountain
ranges
Berlin have been trying to find out what
happens in the brain when we are tickled
in 1999 scientists found young rats also
vocalize when they’re tickled are they
actually laughing what does a rat’s
voice sound like the typical hearing
range of a human is 20 Hertz to 20
kilohertz rats vocalize at twenty to a
hundred kilohertz they make long calls
at 22 kilohertz when they’re scared or
annoyed and when they’re happy they make
short calls at 50 kilohertz for example
when they interact with other rats and
they are given food a bit like when
human voices go higher when we’re
excited or having fun so here’s the
sound a rat makes if you tickle its back
the sound has been converted to a lower
frequency that we humans can hear but
the source frequency is mainly 50
kilohertz apparently the rat likes being
tickled not just because of the
frequency of its calls but because when
the tickling stops the rat doesn’t turn
away but looks to see where the hand has
gone rats recognise the researchers hand
as their playmate and approach the hand
to be tickled you more eventually they
start chasing the hand rapidly while
vocalizing at 50 kilohertz signals from
the body surface reach a brain area
called the somatosensory cortex like a
map of the entire body with distinct
regions for each body part trunk front
legs back legs the researcher tickled
the rats and measured the activity in
the trunk region which is the most
ticklish part of a rat’s body here is
the activity of neurons in the trunk
region when a rat is tickled thin
vertical lines indicate electrical
activity in the new
retinal cells
signals from the trunk are being sent to
this brain region does this neural
activity represent ticklishness if it is
the case activation of these neurons
without actually tickling the body must
be enough for the rat to feel ticklish
to test it the researcher stimulated the
neurons electrically
the rat emits short calls at 50
kilohertz when it’s brain is stimulated
thus the researcher found out that
ticklishness is represented by activity
of the neurons in the somatosensory
cortex I am worried that a lot of these
guys are disappearing and nowhere else
on earth dis dis organism exists you
have to go to the backs of valleys or
distant Ridge lines or isolated mountain
ranges
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