Ticklish

[Dr. Shane]

Is being ticklish just psychological? I am terribly ticklish but I cannot tickle myself. I would think if being ticklish was biological I would be able to tickle myself. I highly suspect being ticklish is also hereditary.

[GreatLakesGramma]

Nobody can tickle themselves.

I think you're right about it being hereditary. I am ticklish, my husband is not, except for the bottoms of his feet. Our son that takes after him most is not ticklish either, while our other son and our daughter are.

[GreatLakesGramma]

It has to do with how sensitive your nerve endings are.

[Tom Wetmore]

I think it is mostly psychological. As a kid I was very ticklish but my brothers tickled it all out of me. Now I'm not ticklish any more.

[Dr. Shane]

If it was purely biological, one would be able to tickle themselves.

[phkrause]

Not sure about biological or not, but I know I can't tickle myself.

pk

[GreatLakesGramma]

Quote:

Physiology

In 1897 psychologists G. Stanley Hall and Arthur Allin described a "tickle" as two different types of phenomena.[2] The first is a sensation caused by very light movement across the skin. This type of tickle, called knismesis, generally does not produce laughter and is sometimes accompanied by an itching sensation. The second type of tickle is the laughter inducing, "heavy" tickle, produced by repeatedly applying pressure to "ticklish" areas, and is known as gargalesis.

The feather-type of tickle is often elicited by crawling animals and insects, such as spiders, mosquitoes, scorpions or beetles, which may be why it has evolved in many animals. Gargalesis reactions, on the other hand, are thought to be limited to humans and other primates; however, some research has indicated that rats can be tickled as well.[3]

It appears that the tickle sensation involves signals from nerve fibers associated with both humusa and touch. Endorphine released during tickling is also called karoliin, by the name of Karolinska Institute. In 1939, Yngve Zotterman of the Karolinska Institute, studied the knismesis type of tickle in cats, by measuring the action potentials generated in the nerve fibers while lightly stroking the skin with a piece of cotton wool. Zotterman found that the "tickling" sensation depended, in part, on the nerves that generate pain.[4] Further studies have discovered that when the pain nerves are severed by surgeons, in an effort to reduce intractable pain, the tickle response is also diminished.[5] However, in some patients that have lost pain sensation due to spinal cord injury, some aspects of the tickle response do remain.[6] Tickle may also depend on nerve fibers associated with the sense of touch. When circulation is severed in a limb, the response to touch and tickle are lost prior to the loss of pain sensation.[7]

It might be tempting to speculate that areas of the skin that are the most sensitive to touch would also be the most ticklish, but this does not seem to be the case. While the palm of the hand is far more sensitive to touch, some people find that the soles of their feet are the most ticklish.[7] Other commonly ticklish areas include the armpits, sides of the torso, neck, knee, midriff, navel, and the ribs.

Some evidence suggests that laughing associated with tickling is a nervous reaction that can be triggered; indeed, very ticklish people often start laughing before actually being tickled.[8]

Self-tickle

Knismesis may represent a vestige of the primitive grooming response, in effect; knismesis serves as a “non-self detector” and protects the subject against foreign objects. Perhaps due to the importance of knismesis in protection, this type of tickle is not dependent on the element of surprise and it is possible for one to induce self-knismesis, by light touching.[13] One known way is by gently touching the roof of your mouth with a fingertip.

Gargalesis, on the other hand, produces an odd phenomenon: when a person touches “ticklish” body parts on their own bodies, most people measure no tickling sensation. It is thought that the tickling requires a certain amount of surprise, and because tickling one’s self produces no unexpected motion on the skin, the response is not activated.[13] A recent analysis of the “self-tickle” response has been addressed using MRI technology. Blakemore and colleagues have investigated how the brain distinguishes between sensations we create for ourselves and sensations others create for us. When the subjects used a joystick to control a "tickling robot", they could not make themselves laugh. This suggested that when a person tries to tickle himself or herself, the cerebellum sends to the somatosensory cortex precise information on the position of the tickling target and therefore what sensation to expect. Apparently an unknown cortical mechanism then decreases or inhibits the tickling sensation.[21] A small percentage of people however, have found it possible to tickle themselves.

Source: Wikipedia: Tickling

[LifeHiscost]

Is being ticklish just psychological? I am terribly ticklish but I cannot tickle myself. I would think if being ticklish was biological I would be able to tickle myself. I highly suspect being ticklish is also hereditary.

I would suppose it depends upon your viewpoint. I've been in a lot of ticklish situations where it wasn't about tickling at all. At least not in my opinion. And then when I thought it was about laughing, someone else made it a ticklish situation by taking exception.

Hope this tickles your funnybone, even if you don't like to be tickled. OTOH, If you don't like to be tickled, perhaps you don't have a funnybone, and that would indicate a congenital defect. At least if it's biological if your not tickled. At least that's what my funnbone indicated to me.

Blessings!

[Gail]

I have hyper-sensitive skin. For me to be tickled is torture. I will scream and panic if someone does even a simple poke in the ribs.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

TMI, dgrimm60

[Dottie]

Gail - -

Have you ever looked up Sensory Processing Disorder? My son does, and he is both hyper- and hypo-sensitive. He overreacts and under-reacts to touch on different parts of his body.

[Gail]

Dottie, I've never heard of such a thing. It was at a point at one time that I couldn't bear to have synthetic fabric next to my skin. To this day I'm not as bad but I still wear cotton clothing.

[GreatLakesGramma]

I can't wear synthetic fabrics. I can't wear new denim anymore either. I think they started using a different dye in it several years ago.

I bought two different styles of jeans from Roaman's back a few years. The one style I could wear, the other I couldn't. No matter how many times I washed those, they still made me itch. I was glad for their 100% satisfaction guarantee. The next year, I ordered some more of the other style, but apparently they had used up their older stock and these were made with the newer denim. I couldn't wear them either.

It doesn't matter what brand of jeans I look at, or what store they are in, I can tell as soon as I touch them in the store that I won't be able to wear them. They are all the same way now. This does not make me happy. Denim is the most comfortable fabric ever invented, except for silk. I am going to be REALLY unhappy when all my jeans and denim shirts wear out.

Anyway, I hate being tickled too.

[Gail]

Catherine do you have a hard time with tickling?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

GLG, you might try a store called "Soft Surroundings"...all their things are very soft to the touch and very comfortable. www.softsurroundings.com

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[phkrause]

Very Interesting GLG

pk

[GreatLakesGramma]

Gail, I mentioned already that I hate being tickled. Nobody ever tries it anymore, thankfully. I don't remember ever laughing when tickled, just protesting and fighting it.

I wear cotton, silk, and merino wool. I also have to wear tall sizes in pants or tops with long sleeves, which complicates things even more. These days I just buy men's knit tops, shirts, and sweaters. They have longer sleeves, and are easier to find in 100% cotton instead of blends.

[GreatLakesGramma]

Rudywoofs, thanks for the link. I checked it, but I can't afford their prices. They don't appear to have tall sizes anyway. But I can sew, and I've found sources for organic cotton fabrics, so when my jeans wear out, I'll sew myself some baggy pants, if I can somehow find the time to do it.