You’re laughing! Scientists say that humans chuckle in a unique way when they are tickled. Can you decipher this giggle?

There’s nothing like that laugh you let out when you’re tickled.

Now experts have confirmed that cries caused by tickling actually do sound recognisably different from other forms of giggling.

During a listening experiment, about 200 people were asked to identify types of laughter.

This included tickle-induced giggling, laughing at a joke, chuckling at the sight of something funny, and laughing at a humorous accident.

The results showed that people could identify tickle-induced laughter with about 60 percent accuracy.

A second listening experiment and AI analysis of 887 YouTube clips found that tickle laughter shows less vocal control than other types.

Participants also rated ticklish laughter as more involuntary.

The researchers from the University of Amsterdam say their findings highlight tickling as an evolutionarily ancient play behavior.

During a listening experiment, about 200 people were tasked with identifying types of laughter (stock image)

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the team said: ‘Laughter has deep evolutionary roots: many mammals, including chimpanzees, squirrel monkeys and dogs, produce laugh-like sounds during play.

‘In humans, laughter is one of the first complex social behaviors we exhibit: human babies begin to laugh within weeks of birth.

‘Laughter is ubiquitous in human life, but its cause and what it sounds like are highly variable.

‘In a listening experiment, participants were able to accurately identify tickle-induced laughter, confirming that such laughter is not only acoustically but also perceptually distinct.’

They said the increased arousal seen in tickling-induced laughter, with the reduced vocal control, suggests it is an “automatic response” to the act of tickling.

Previous research shows that laughing when tickled in our sensitive areas – under the arms, near the throat and under our feet – can be a defense mechanism.

Evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists believe that we giggle when we are tickled because the part of the brain that tells us to laugh when we experience light touch, the hypothalamus, is also the same part that tells us to expect a painful sensation.

Studies suggest that we evolved to laugh to show our submission to an aggressor, to defuse a tense situation and avoid getting hurt.

CAN LAUGHING AT YOURSELF IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH?

A new study from researchers in Spain has found that laughing at yourself can be good for you. (file photo)

Researchers in Spain have discovered that laughing at yourself isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

A new study shows that self-defeating humor can have an effect on how angry you are.

But the report explained how some people use humor to cover up negative thoughts.

The study found: ‘Researchers are quick to point out that certain humor styles can be used to conceal negative intentions and feelings.’

Explaining the potential dark sides of the tactic, one of the researchers said that the “results suggest that humor, even when presented as benign or well-intentioned, can also be a strategy to mask negative intentions.”

‘Humor allows individuals with low honesty scores to build trust, closeness, etc. with other people while using important information to manipulate them or gain benefits in the future.’