New study reveals infants don't experience tickle the way people think

A new study has found that infants don't really experience the tickling sensation in the way people think.

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Andrew Bremner of Goldsmiths, University of London and the study's first author Jannath Begum Ali have discovered that infants in the first four months of life apparently feel that touch and wiggle their feet without connecting the sensation to people.

The researchers discovered that when adults cross their hands or feet and someone touches them they make more mistakes in identifying the origin of the sensation they have felt.

They said that the infants actually outperform older infants and adults in correctly placing where they've been touched when their feet are crossed.

Bremner opined that before around six months of age human babies perceive touches just on their bodies and not in the external world, adding that if one tries to imagine what this must be like it's a bit of a dizzying idea.

The study is published in the journal Cell Press.