The comedian isn’t a fan, but, according to a neuroscientist, tickling is a key part of the bonding process between parents and children
Russell Brand – the new moral arbiter of parenthood – has claimed he would punch anyone who tried to tickle his young daughters. “It is an attempt to subvert the child’s bodily autonomy; to take away their right to their own space and peace,” he said.
It is unclear whether Brand tickles his own children – or indeed whether he has consent from them to do so – but obviously, says Sophie Scott, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, “you can’t just prance up to any child and start tickling them”. According to Scott, who is an expert on what causes laughter, this is not only because “a lot of people don’t really like being tickled at all”. It is usually a behaviour reserved for parents or caregivers and their children and is a way of kicking off preverbal communication. When you study laughter in humans and other mammals, says Scott, the first laughs tend to occur as a result of tickling. “Tickling exists as a mechanism to get laughter going.”
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UAS0Gk
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