Tickling is strange because it does not feel optional. You do not decide to laugh. Your body just does it. The sound comes out before your brain has time to judge whether anything is funny. People ...

Tickling is a very strange sensation because it doesn't depend on your will. That's right, you don't decide whether or not to laugh; your body simply reacts. Your brain doesn't even have a chance to ...

A study of chimps, gorillas and other great apes, including human children, sheds light on how laughter has evolved. By Emily Anthes Humor is deeply personal. A punchline or a pratfall that leaves one ...

If you think laughter and comedy are reserved strictly for humans, you'd be wrong. A study in the late 1990s showed that creatures like rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations while playing with or ...

Rats have what appears to be a “laugh centre” in their midbrain that is activated when the animals are tickled or when they engage in play behaviours. Researchers first discovered that rats could ...

In a grey-walled room in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, a strange activity is underfoot. Wearing a cap covered in sensors and positioning themselves into a chair, a person places their bare feet over two ...