Why do we itch?

CrowdScience gets a lot of questions about a lot of subjects, but sometimes there are questions that keep coming up again and again, with listeners all around the world asking similar things. This week we’re going to scratch one of those itches…. what is itching?

So: why do we itch? What’s the point? Is it physical or psychological, and what’s going on in the body and the brain when we feel itchy?

With the help of a dermatologist and a neuroscientist, presenter Anand Jagatia attempts to get to the bottom of something that affects us all – those tingly scratchy feelings that make you want to scratch yourself.

We’ll also be finding out whether scratching an itch is helpful, discovering some of the things that can cause an itch and wondering whether we can prevent them in the first place.