“Individuals With Pronounced Schizotypal Traits Are Particularly Successful in Tickling Themselves”, 2016-04-01 (; similar):
We assessed tickling sensation in healthy subjects with pronounced schizotypal traits.
They were particularly successful in tickling themselves.
The ability to self-tickle was linked to feelings of control by outside forces.
Thus, the formation of odd beliefs may be related to sensory prediction deficits.
We assessed self-tickling sensations in a group of participants high in schizotypal traits (n = 27) and group of participants low in schizotypal traits (n = 27). The groups were formed by screening a pool of 397 students for extreme scores in the French version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. As observed in a previous study involving psychiatric people with auditory hallucinations and/or passivity experiences our results showed that self-applied tactile stimulations are felt to be more ticklish by healthy individuals high in schizotypal traits. In contrast, there were no statistically-significant intergroup differences in the mean tickle rating in the externally-produced tickling condition. Furthermore, more successful self-tickling was associated with more frequent self-reports of unusual perceptual experiences (such as supernatural experiences) and passivity experiences in particular (such as a feeling of being under the control of an outside force or power).
[Keywords: schizotypy, schizophrenia, agency, delusions, passivity experiences, ticklishness, efference copy, predictive sensorimotor process]