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Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by drooby on Sunday October 09, 2022 @08:48PM (#33146743)
It has been noticed that those with schizophrenia (not saying you have that) are able to tickle themselves.

The hypothesis is that people with schizophrenia are less able to predict their internal sensations - and because tickling is so tightly coupled exciting our brains expectation and predictions - they experience it as if someone else is doing it.

Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by not_alexb on Sunday October 09, 2022 @09:19PM (#33146863)
My partner of a few years can do it and she couldn't be further from the representations in the literature or media (Sapolsky's lecture on it) that I've seen on schizophrenia; however, I'm not even remotely an expert in any of it.
Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by headhasthoughts on Sunday October 09, 2022 @09:50PM (#33147039)
ASD and schizophrenia share something in common: Both feature NMDA receptors functioning differently than in neurotypicals, which is a plausible cause for why some people are able to tickle themselves.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3808979/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17097347/

People with either are less likely to experience illusions. SlateStarCodex had a decent article that touched on the phenomenon a few years ago:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/06/28/why-are-transgender-pe...

Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by LinuxBender on Sunday October 09, 2022 @10:29PM (#33147199)
I used to be able to tickle my own feet a little bit when my skin was drier, but I can't any more. I don't have any of the symptoms in that NIH doc. Unsure if related but I also receive no effects from morphine regardless of dosage. Nobody has been able to tell me why.
Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by mjan22640 on Monday October 10, 2022 @06:09AM (#33149635)
The neurotypicals susceptibility to illusions is IMHO a cohesion enhancing adaptation for life in large groups.
Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by collegeburner on Sunday October 09, 2022 @10:04PM (#33147102)
oh damn

i can tickle myself reliably and in a bunch of diff places but pretty sure i'm otherwise normal. not a schizo not an autist so idk why... or at least pretty sure i'm not (◕‿◕)

Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by saghm on Sunday October 09, 2022 @11:21PM (#33147419)
I can tickle myself in several spots on my upper back, and I definitely don't think it feels like someone else is doing it (and don't have trouble predicting it from what I can tell, although I guess I've never been tested on that rigorously). If anything, my expectation of it causes it to be even more overwhelming (it's not something that I enjoy at all honestly regardless of whether it's me or someone else doing it; the best comparison I can make to it is like accidentally shocking yourself when brushing your finger against the metal when plugging something into an outlet, just not as strong and localized to the tickled spot).

On the other hand, I've noticed a fair number of other strange reactions that I sometimes get to sensations that I've occasionally seen other people online mention but have never met anyone else in person who also says they have them. One weird one is that when certain things vibrate in my hand (e.g. some but not all of the cell phones I've had and my Nintendo Switch's "rumble"), my inner ear will feel like it's shaking around, which is very unsettling. It seems to happen on the opposite ear of the hand my phone is being held (or both ears if both hands are touching). I can also sometimes replicate it by tickling parts of my lower face (in which case it happens on the same side as the part of my face touched), which makes me think it's due to some sort of actual physiological response to some extent rather than just some sort of weird resonance). From googling this in the past, there do seem to be other people who experience this, but I couldn't find any sort of documented research on it (presumably due to it being rare and benign enough not to merit anyone's attention).

Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by 1123581321 on Monday October 10, 2022 @01:09AM (#33147995)
Does that effect extend to sexual touch, e.g. masturbation? Has that ever been studied? I realize this is a strange observation.
Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by sva_ on Monday October 10, 2022 @07:17AM (#33150017)
> It has been noticed

Source?

Re:Why You Can’t Tickle Yourself by drooby on Monday October 10, 2022 @10:15AM (#33151685)