The entire NY Times article is here.

From Panksepp's 2005 article in Science:

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. We have already bred rats that exhibit playful chirping, and thereby hope to track down some of the genes for joy. Perhaps we will even stumble on new molecules to alleviate depression as well as some excessive-exuberance disorders.

That bolded sentence just kills me. (In a good way.)

Fantastic! I just read this somewhere but the video is charming, but then I'm rather fond of rats. Another story this week about rats thinking like humans is here: http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070309_rat_thinkers.html I want some of those "genes for joy"

ha! but how did they "ask"??

^ chasing the hand

...and closer and closer toward vegetarianism...

I'm very ticklish but would NEVER chase someone down to tickle me. While I laugh, almost cry if it's kept up long enough, it is NOT something I want to happen or even remotely enjoy. I know very few people who do.

*promote

Promoting this classic video back to the front page; last published Monday, March 19th, 2007 5:31pm PDT - promote requested by dotdude.

*promote animal tickling!!!

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, October 6th, 2007 10:14pm PDT - promote requested by rottenseed.

My daughter loves to be tickled -- with game rules. If she moves, I tickle, or if she talks. So the cue is up to her, until she says the game is over.

*catsanddogsandRATS

Adding video to channels (Catsanddogs) - requested by EDD.

4 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

*length=1:31

The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 1:31 - length declared by geo321.

Replaced video embed code with backup #2591 (supplied by member peggedbea) - embed replaced by member dystopianfuturetoday.