Abstract
If our skin were sensitive all over, we would be in big trouble. No threat looms quite so large as that of the Tickle Monster. You never know when it will strike, and it takes only moments to reduce you to a collapsed pile of giggles. But why is the Tickle Monster so effective? Why are certain spots more ticklish than others? The existence of tickle spots highlights a design feature of skin-not all areas are the same. Different parts of your skin sport wildly different sensitivities to the world around you. These differences come from varying "sensory neuron distributions." That's science for saying some parts of your skin have more nerve endings than others.