So, one of the joys of having children is messing with them a bit 😉
The other night I thought it funny to set Taio, my oldest son, to tickling himself… after he asked me to tickle him.
So he tried his side.
No dice.
Tried under his knees.
No such luck.
He tried under his arms.
“It’s not working” he exclaimed.
“Why isn’t it working?” he asked.
I told him to keep trying, and then left him for the night – then checked back in the morning to see if he had accomplished his goal.
“I can’t do it” he told me.
So I turned it to his younger brother – Xavier tried and also could not tickle himself.
So then I set out to give them the truth. That nobody can tickle themselves.
Then came what should have been expected.
“Why?”
Ahhh… the dreaded “Why”
The funny thing is this – when I was their age, there was no Google, no internet, no cell phones, no tablet, and certainly no Google Home to ask random questions to (you do not know what the children ask that box).
Because all that Daddy knows is that it’s not possible.
For everything else, there’s Google.
And for those that are curious:
Our studies at University College London have shown that the cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does. When you try to tickle yourself, the cerebellum predicts the sensation and this prediction is used to cancel the response of other brain areas to the tickle.
