Why Do Light Touches Make You Itchy?

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

Itching can be either mechanical or chemical. Voyagerix/Shutterstock

When an insect lands on your skin, it causes a tickling sensation that gives you a strong urge to itch. This is known as a mechanical itch, as opposed to the other type of itch experienced by animals that is induced by chemicals. But while the pathway that leads to chemical itches has been studied, the one controlling the mechanical itch is a little less understood. Now researchers have found that there are in fact two separate pathways that transmit itching: one for chemical stimuli and one for mechanical.