ArticleNature human behaviour2026
Human ticklishness is a widespread, culturally shared and bodily organized sensory experience.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human ticklishness is one of the oldest yet unresolved scientific puzzles. As early as the time of Aristotle and Socrates, scholars have speculated on its origins and function, but fundamental questions remain. Is ticklishness culturally shared or specific? Does it follow a structured bodily topography, and how does it relate to other bodily sensations? Here we analysed data from three cultural groups (Chinese, Dutch and Greek) and reveal consistent behavioural patterns and social dynamics. We extracted a high-resolution bodily map of ticklishness and show that it generalizes across cultures and individuals, and is distinct from maps of touch sensitivity, pain and pleasure. When tested against predictions from five historical and contemporary theories, we show that no single theory can fully explain the ticklishness topography. Although ticklishness is stronger in rarely touched regions, supporting Darwin's hypothesis, its topography relies on a psychophysiological mechanism that is more complex than previously assumed.
Identifiers
42575936What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.