Giving a rat's laugh

Science proves that rats are ticklish--click through to watch the video, it's hilarious.

Comments

[Michael]

This is about as unsurprising as can be. I can only imagine that the researchers are conflating a specific type of laughter (play-laughter) with cognitive human mirthful laughter:

Although no one has investigated the possibility of rat humor, if it exists, it is likely to be heavily laced with slapstick. Even if adult rodents have no well-developed cognitive sense of humor, young rats have a marvelous sense of fun.

Creatures that play have some way to signal the not-real, subjunctive quality of their actions ("the nip denotes the bite, but not what would be denoted by the bite"). Rats presumably enjoy playing, and they vocalize their enjoyment; young children laugh when they play as well, despite having no "well-developed cognitive sense of humor."

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I didn't even read what John Tierney wrote about the rat laughter experiment. I just thought the video was really funny.

[Michael]

I just thought the video was really funny.

I'm sorry. I simply lose my sense of humor when the topic is laughter. But the video is adorable.

[Madison Guy]

Four years of war in microcosm: Things are getting better. The President said so just today.

(Wonder if he's ticklish.)

[swampcracker]

OMG, is that Renfield reincarnated as Jaak Panksepp?

[John Lucid]

My son currently has two pet rats, Debbie and Blondie, and had one before them named Jasmine, who unfortunately died from pneumonia right before last Christmas. Jasmine was the best of three, because she was the smartest and the most playful. She knew her name, and would come when you called her. She liked having her fur stroked and she also liked licking us. Here's a picture of her just after she finished licking my toe. She was a good girl, and we still miss her.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this researcher's findings about rat laughter hold up. I know for a fact that rats are playful, so why not laughter on top of the play? It seems entirely plausible to me.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

What a cutie. RIP, Jasmine.

[Julian Elson]

That's odd... I thought that ticklishness evolved to be unpleasant while superficially resembling happy laughter so that parents would be encouraged to torture their babies with tickling to teach them to defend themselves. I didn't think anyone actually sought out being tickled. Are we sure this isn't a happy response to the feeling of being caressed, rather than tickled?