Phil Noble / Reuters WARNING: Reading the following post will
make you itchy. There probably aren’t any tiny ants feeling
their way over your limbs and across the back of your neck right
now. But wouldn’t you feel better scratching anyway? Why is it
that seeing, discussing, or even just thinking about creepy
crawlers makes us feel itchy all over? It turns out the experts
aren’t sure. University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist Dr.
Wenqin Luo places the blame for phantom itch on memories of an
itchy past. Thinking about bugs, she explains, might prompt
memories of previous experiences – “itchy associations.” Why,
then, doesn’t thinking about injuries prompt our bodies to feel
phantom pains? Dr. Luo offers the following theory: “Compared
with itch, pain is a serious protective mechanism that triggers
avoidance behavior. Thus, the threshold to trigger a pain
sensation may be much higher than that of itch.” Basically: If
our brains registered pain (a danger) as easily as they do itch
(an annoyance), our bodies woul