

Why It is Nearly Impossible to Tickle Yourself - solipsist
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/08/why-it-is-nearly-impossible-to-tickle-yourself/

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makeramen
i showed a friend once that he could tickle himself by plucking/poking at the
tendon/muscle on your upper inner thigh (pretty much right next to your
crotch). he totally had a field day playing with himself.

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jeromec
I liked this line:

 _The Romans used to use continuous tickling of the feet as a form of
torture._

I'm pretty sure I saw that in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

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noelchurchill
I feel like I'm more ticklish when I know it's coming.

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RichardPrice
One problem for the 'surprise' analysis of ticklishness is that we are still
ticklish when we see a 3rd party tickling us, and when there is therefore no
surprise as the existence and source of the tactile sensations.

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jeromec
I think what is happening is that when someone else does the tickling,
although we may know it's coming we don't know what exact details to expect.
For example, will I tickle you lightly or firmly, and in what exact spot? Will
I wriggle my fingers? How long will I persist? When we tickle ourselves not
only do we know it's coming, but our brain can answer any of those questions,
so it's really difficult to not anticipate any resulting sensation.

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RichardPrice
Good point, I can definitely see how this could be the case.

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guynamedloren
tl;dr - Tickling yourself doesn't work because you're brain is actively
anticipating the sensations. There is no element of surprise.

