There are many forms of touch in the human vocabulary, like caresses, squeezes, slaps, and pinches. Yet there’s only one type of touch known to routinely elicit laughter: tickling. From the time we’re ...

Aging is such a complex process in the body and brain it seems impossible that a technique involving daily ear stimulation — known as “tickle therapy” — might be able to fight it. But a team at the ...

Don’t try this at home, but tickling a gorilla, orangutan, bonobo or chimp can inspire bursts of grunting sounds. Yes, that’s laughter, says Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth in ...