Branching off of my original question about ticklishness in cats and dogs, what exactly is going on with the body when you’re being tickled? Obviously it is some kind of reaction of the nervous system, and it really quite closely resembles pain in many ways. Is it a sort of pain response akin to the Chinese water torture concept of a droplet of water on the forehead over and over again eventually causing severe agony? And actually, does the Chinese water torture actually work? Would that cause pain eventually? All in all, if tickling is pain, and if light contact with the body (as in the form of a feather or a drop of water or a finger or what have you), why is this?