By: Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience Ever touched your finger inside your belly button? Yeah, it feels weird right. Makes your groin tingle and you kinda need to pee. Well, it turns out there’s a good reason for that. And we’re going to explain it to you right now.
The reason is that your belly button, or umbilicus, connects to fibers that lead to your spinal cord. This also relays information from your bladder and urethra to your brain.
So when you push your belly button, you’re stimulating the same area. This can trick your brain into thinking it’s receiving signals from elsewhere, mimicking the feeling of needing to pee – or a tingly feeling in your groin.
“The internal lining of the abdominal cavity at your umbilicus (belly button) is called your parietal peritoneum,” Dr. Christopher Hollingsworth from NYC Surgical Associates in the US told BuzzFeed. “This structure is exquisitely sensitive and its sensory nerve fibers relay input back to the spinal cord at the same level as the nerves that relay sensation from your bladder and urethra.”
You’ll only get this weird tingly feeling if you really dig deep into your belly button, though. If you just touch the sides, you won’t hit the right fibers and get the same sensation. But pushing deeply brings you to the umbilicus, which is extremely sensitive and causes the odd feeling.
So, there you have it. Didn’t think you’d be finding that out today, did you?
