Science of Tickle Paraphillia : UPDATE

[Aeveirra]

Barely ANY scholarly content about knismolagnia (tickling fetishism) exists, which is why I think I may be the only neuroscientist who has a tickle fetish lol. So I have made it my long-term goal to continue independent research via data and observation so as to provide you all with glorious knowledge to spread across this forum.

** For those who have not read my previous posts on this matter, Illl give you a rundown of the primary conclusions i have reached via data and observation:

1) I Created the hypothesis/ (now theory), that tickling fetishism occurs as a result from being connected to a different region in the brain involved in sexual behaviors.

2) The “Reward system” is a process that releases dopamine (induces natural euphoria), and is activated during sex/sexual stimulation. For this to work, endocrinological development must occur during puberty.

3) Tickling fetishism (sometimes also combined with foot fetishism) is the *only paraphilia known to develop before puberty. Much earlier in fact. Many People with knismolagnia were aware of their interest as early as 5 years old. This *should be impossible*, because the pre-pubescent brain lacks the ability to form sexual associations without reinforcement neurotransmitters.

4) People who have a tickling fetish tend to have it VERY strongly; The psychological connection is much more powerful than most other kinks. By just hearing the word “tickle” can cause changes in their mental & physical state.

5) Most people here think about tickling almost non-stop each day. For many, its their only fetish, and they are uninterested in trying any other kink.

* * * * * EXPLANATION OF THE ABOUVE EVIDENCE * * * * * *

6) When people are tickled/ tickle others, or even think about tickling - specific brain regions become active, notably the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus has many functions, including “primal-instinctive sexual urges and behaviors”

7) Because the hypothalamus becomes active for both sexual instinct, and tickling, If a cross-wiring of neurons occurs in these two areas of the hypothalamus they can overlap and cause Tickling to become linked with sexual behavior.

8)This connection allows the brain to bypass the reward system, and knismolagnia develops.

9) The type of sexual association created in the hypothalamus is different than that in the reward system, and is why knismolagnia has powerful psychological effects on people that other fetishes don’t cause.

*** NEWLEY UPDATED INFO ***
Intro:
I am almost completely certain that the neurological basis for this fetish is NOT in the reward system, but is in fact linked to the hypothalamus. If I’m right about this, it would mean that tickling is the most “neurobiologically unique” paraphilia; because there are no others known to science to be linked in this way.
*This type of connection also has some very strange effects on us ticklephiles...
Im going to call the group of brain regions that becomes activated when tickled/tickling other : the ( TAS ) Tickle Activation System. In reality, thats what it is; each region is related to a certain reaction: (laughing, facial movements, increased heart rate, tensing muscles, arousal ... ect....)
(As well as mirror neurons firing in these same areas when a ler tickle someone else.)
- - - The TAS is the same for people with/without a tickling fetish, but i’m theorizing the neuropathways in the hypothalamus (and possibly amygdala as well) are connected differently but have same the same amount of activity.


I wanted to study more about the differences between how the reward system and hypothalamus are each involved in sexual stimulation.... I came to a radical realization: Tickling paraphilia may not be “fetish”, but something that is more or less similar to sexual orientation attraction. ( Amazing , right?!?! ) lol

1) The hypothalamus doesn’t process sexual stimulation in the same way the reward system does, its actually on a much deeper subconscious level.
This is difficult to explain, but iin short: its involved with “instinctive sexuality” such as attraction and orientation.


* Homosexual males have a smaller hypothalamus than straight males, and a larger amygdala.
* Homosexual females have a larger hypothalamus, in addition to a smaller to a smaller amygdala. (they’re are reversed)
________________________________________________________________________________

** CONCLUSIONS **
1) Tickling fetishism may not actually be a “fetish” in the way we understand fetishes to be.
It seems like the ‘sexual association’ with tickling is at a deeper subconscious level, and not so dissimilar from sexual orientation. This means, that tickling is instinctively linked to ones’ sexuality, in a way that big breasts and a curvy figure are to men. Its a primal attraction.

2) If this is true, then it perfectly explains why, when we were young children we somehow “instinctive knew about/were interested in tickling” even if we have never seen porn before, or even knew what sex was.
It also explains how so many people are able to recall seeing brief moments of tickling on tv (like in a cartoon) when they were very young, but somehow retain a vivid memory of that moment.

MANY people (myself included) are able to recall such memories) but some people think seeing that on tv us what made them develop a fetish. Thats not the case, wht happened was your brain was wired to subconsciously combine tickling and sexuality: and so that memory could be very easily imprinted on you because it stimulated and synchronized with hypothalamic activity.

* * * * * FINAL THOUGHTS * * * *
Did i just blow your minds?! haha
I hate to downplay this, but this based mostly on my personal data / observations, educated speculation and reliance on my background knowledge of neurology.
Despite having developed a solid case for this, its just a theory and i have no way to test it. for certain. But it is based on facts, and Im very confident this is whats actually happening in the brain.
I hope people find this interesting, helpful. and insightful.

- - As always, I encourage you to comment, share your thoughts about this.


- - - Aeve <3

 

[Myriads]

I'll play the home game:

Tickling fetishism (sometimes also combined with foot fetishism) is the *only paraphilia known to develop before puberty. Much earlier in fact. Many People with knismolagnia were aware of their interest as early as 5 years old. This *should be impossible*, because the pre-pubescent brain lacks the ability to form sexual associations without reinforcement neurotransmitters.

You state this as one of your base considerations for your ideas. But it's not true, and not true on several basis.

A knismolagnia/paraphila/fetish/etc cannot develop before puberty. Why? Without an active sexuality that is starting to function, by definition you can't have a sexual disfunction in the case of a fetish, or statistical aberration in the case of a paraphilia. It seems you are confabbing a 'like' of tickling for something that would be considered a knismolagnia in an adult. Many behaviors that mirror knismolagnia appear in pre-pubescent children. These range a gambit of 'fascinations' such as an unusual attraction to hair (the grasping and touching of it) to frottage in the pursuit of pleasant physical stimuli. These behaviors are not overtly sexual in nature, just as tickling at that age would not be, as there is no sexuality for them to BE in context to.

That tickling might be more memorable to an adult as a behavior they participated in with positive feelings can be chalked up to it being a occurrence that is more apt to stand out in memory. Positive in the context of parent-child bonding, or negative in the honest distress that it can cause. In standing out in memory, it becomes a much more easy waypoint for the adult to look back on, and see as 'The start of my fetish'. While in fact many other sexual preferences were loaded in the same years into the sleeping sexual matrix and just not remembered as they were far more unremarkable.

A lot of folks with fairly unusual knismolagnia can trace their first memories of encountering them into their pre-pubecnt experiences. Just because they remember that they had some form of connectivity then, does not make them some 'exception' to the knismolagnia before pubescence rules.

With many of your posts you start with the idea that you have a tickling knismolagnia, and then back validate your theories with your own perceived personal experience. You felt X and then you find data that supports why YOU felt X. The you generalize it to a grander theory that makes tickling somehow special.

Tickling is only one touch behavior. There is kissing, stroking, patting, massaging, pinching, and on and on. People can and do become sexually connected to any and all of these also. All of them produce a similar mix of chemistry in a subject to tickling, as they all are working the same neural systems at base.

You are inside your theory, and it's clouding your ability to see the issues with it.

Myriads

 

[Wolf]

I'll play the home game:

You state this as one of your base considerations for your ideas. But it's not true, and not true on several basis.
(Edited only because I hate wall-of-text replies. Everything was dead on.)
You are inside your theory, and it's clouding your ability to see the issues with it.

Myriads

It never ceases to amaze, amuse, and annoy me how goddamn deadly serious people are about this fetish, and the desire for it to be taken seriously.
For heaven's sake, doesn't anyone just have have fun with it anymore?


P.S. Get off my lawn.

 

[giggleBrat]

P.S. Get off my lawn.

I laughed sooo hahd! >.<

 

[Aeveirra]

If you read what i said about the difference in association, its not exactly a 'fetish' as we now it to be. But the interest does appear before puberty. I mean like... way too many people can recall their self-awareness at a young age.

and later, I came to the realization that tickling becomes a part of sexuality intrinsically.
After puberty is when it becomes more sexualized. And the reward system is involved later on, just like a all other fetishes are.

And about sexual "connection" yes, other things can cause them, but re-read what i said how the same subcortical organ is involved. Its a very different type of connection


dude, im not tying to validate my own ideas. haha, jeez.
nor do i seek out data to try and intentionally support myself. I said in the post that a lot of this 'speculation' in the sense that I'm basing it off data from others as well. (i.e. Neurobiology ) The data i collect here is observation of *common occurrences.*
in attempts to explain this, or at least try to understand them, id look at what happens to the brain when we are tickled.
when i realized what areas became stimulated, It seems highly plausible that the functions associated with those regions is what causes common experiences.

im not posting this as some as some major "medical journal article" I'm just presenting this as some possible theories as to why many people here feel/ experienced the same things.

plus, i do have 5 years experience in this field, and i have extensive understanding of what these regions I'm talking about, do when activated.

its just some possible explanations...
but the vast majority is backed by biology & simple facts about how our subcortical systems work.
what your talking about is like classical conditioning... but thats not whats happening here.

I'll play the home game:



You state this as one of your base considerations for your ideas. But it's not true, and not true on several basis.

A knismolagnia/paraphila/fetish/etc cannot develop before puberty. Why? Without an active sexuality that is starting to function, by definition you can't have a sexual disfunction in the case of a fetish, or statistical aberration in the case of a paraphilia. It seems you are confabbing a 'like' of tickling for something that would be considered a knismolagnia in an adult. Many behaviors that mirror knismolagnia appear in pre-pubescent children. These range a gambit of 'fascinations' such as an unusual attraction to hair (the grasping and touching of it) to frottage in the pursuit of pleasant physical stimuli. These behaviors are not overtly sexual in nature, just as tickling at that age would not be, as there is no sexuality for them to BE in context to.

That tickling might be more memorable to an adult as a behavior they participated in with positive feelings can be chalked up to it being a occurrence that is more apt to stand out in memory. Positive in the context of parent-child bonding, or negative in the honest distress that it can cause. In standing out in memory, it becomes a much more easy waypoint for the adult to look back on, and see as 'The start of my fetish'. While in fact many other sexual preferences were loaded in the same years into the sleeping sexual matrix and just not remembered as they were far more unremarkable.

A lot of folks with fairly unusual knismolagnia can trace their first memories of encountering them into their pre-pubecnt experiences. Just because they remember that they had some form of connectivity then, does not make them some 'exception' to the knismolagnia before pubescence rules.

With many of your posts you start with the idea that you have a tickling knismolagnia, and then back validate your theories with your own perceived personal experience. You felt X and then you find data that supports why YOU felt X. The you generalize it to a grander theory that makes tickling somehow special.

Tickling is only one touch behavior. There is kissing, stroking, patting, massaging, pinching, and on and on. People can and do become sexually connected to any and all of these also. All of them produce a similar mix of chemistry in a subject to tickling, as they all are working the same neural systems at base.

You are inside your theory, and it's clouding your ability to see the issues with it.

Myriads

 

[chicago]

Yeah I wouldn't say I had this kink until I was in my teens. Before that, I was pretty terrified by the idea of being tickled. I have no memorable defining moments during childhood that stand out to me.

I actually don't think about it nonstop all day, I've tried other things, and aside from a handful of hard limits, I'd probably give most things a try within reason.

The way this is laid out doesn't look very scientist like to me, but the thoughts are interesting.

If you're basing your data on this site alone, it may be skewed. There are a lot of people that are not active here or not even a member that are into tickling and not so obsessed. I think you have to take into account that there may be more activity here of people who have no outlet for their desires and thus they spend most of their time here. Repression can lead to a lot of wacky behavior as I'm sure you know, but I'd have to say, especially taking into account your short membership, you're studying probably a mostly ill-adjusted group of people who get off on tickling.

 

[Aeveirra]

yeah, this stuff isn't 100% for everyone
i just figured for the all the people who have told me the same things, i would look into ti.
it lead me to a lot of interesting things so idiots compiled them, and made some inferences of my own.
then myriads has be all critical

Yeah I wouldn't say I had this kink until I was in my teens. Before that, I was pretty terrified by the idea of being tickled. I have no memorable defining moments during childhood that stand out to me.

I actually don't think about it nonstop all day, I've tried other things, and aside from a handful of hard limits, I'd probably give most things a try within reason.

The way this is laid out doesn't look very scientist like to me, but the thoughts are interesting.

If you're basing your data on this site alone, it may be skewed. There are a lot of people that are not active here or not even a member that are into tickling and not so obsessed. I think you have to take into account that there may be more activity here of people who have no outlet for their desires and thus they spend most of their time here. Repression can lead to a lot of wacky behavior as I'm sure you know, but I'd have to say, especially taking into account your short membership, you're studying probably a mostly ill-adjusted group of people who get off on tickling.

 

[Wolf]

yeah, this stuff isn't 100% for everyone
i just figured for the all the people who have told me the same things, i would look into ti.
it lead me to a lot of interesting things so idiots compiled them, and made some inferences of my own.
then myriads has be all critical

Doesn't exactly sound like a rigorous application of the scientific method.

 

[Darkknight]

I'll go with magic instead of science. I recall a couple of times way before my teen years of loving to tickle girls or seeing them tickled. It didn't turn me on until I was a teen. I think about tickling every day and "have no outlet for their desires and thus they spend most of their time here." Magic.

 

[Myriads]

i do have 5 years experience in this field, and i have extensive understanding of what these regions I'm talking about, do when activated.

And it's great that you have that five years of experience in your field.

But you also show a total lack of, or unwillingness to acknowledge the last 35+ years of psychological theory and study on how paraphilia and sexual development occur done by countless people with decades more 'time in their field' then you.

In fact you show your general respect toward modern psychological thinking with statements like you make here: http://www.ticklingforum.com/showth...E-GAY-MARRIAGE-proposal&p=3915227#post3915227 where you state

Technically, Homosexuality is a mental disorder

. An opinion that you as an individual are certainly welcome to hold, but also one that has been 100% rejected by the psychological community in mass.

I'm not attacking you, I'm attacking the pseudo-scientific explanations that you are tossing up based on your own field of research, (which you've said you've not done specific research upon, but are just riffing off of ideas you have read about in other contexts) mixed with your own personal viewpoint on ticking which you are looking at it all from. I understand that a lot of people want to make ticking 'special' or move it out of the the cloud of other paraphilia into another class of behavior so they don't have to accept that they are not different then all those other paraphilia holders. There is nothing that has shown that tickling as a sexual behavior is any different in operation, connectivity, or development then a large number of other paraphilia (most of the 'touch' group in fact when it comes to the brains chemical responses.) So no matter how much you want tickling to be special (another line of your threads focused on how you could never understand why any one would not see tickling as you do) it's just not. It's one of countless sexual behaviors that a small percentage of the population attaches to for randomized reasons in the sexual development phase.

Accepting this will save you from making horribly embarrassing statements like this:

This means, that tickling is instinctively linked to ones’ sexuality, in a way that big breasts and a curvy figure are to men.

Big breasts and curvy figures ARE NOT instinctively linked to males sexualities. They are in THIS culture, but are not in a global and historical sampling. Beauty standards and attractors change over time and culture. Just because you are soaking in a culture and time that finds Big boobs and curvy figures super hot and sexually attractive does not mean it always thus, or has been thus for all times. Different cultures attach ALL sorts of weird things to their sexual activities, and none of those things are hardwired. They are cultural artifacts. Conceivably you could get a culture that sees tickling as foreplay, but that wouldn't make it any more part of inherent sexuality then anything else, it would just hold for that culture at that time.

Not too many Chinese lusting after women who have had their feet mutilated by binding these days is there? And so on. Cultural sexual attractors shift.

We are not the chosen people who pulled the one paraphilia that is so close to sex that it is special.

And again if you are feeling attacked here I'm not I'm speaking in this spirit:

As always, I encourage you to comment, share your thoughts about this.

Myriads

 

[robmic]

Without spending half a day reading all the posts here and just scanning them, I will tell you that my personal experience with prepubescence sexual gratification towards my attraction to tickling and feet was real! At the tender age of somewhere around 4 to 5 years old, I had already developed a strong attraction towards women's feet and tickling them. I would get a "tingle in my lower stomach and hone in on the target to attempt to achieve my ultimate goal... to tickle those feet! One time I actually got the opportunity to do just that, with the feet held helpless for me! To make a long story short, while her feet were being held for me, I stripped off the sneakers, and, as she wasn't wearing any socks, dove into tickling her feet. The shrieks and laughter consumed me as I tickled them with gusto! It probably only lasted a minute or so, but what happened will prove one thing. I felt my insides kind of twist up and I felt like what can only be described as your first climax! Now keep in mind, I was only 4 or 5 at the time and this can't happen. There was no mess in my pants, but since I'm much older now and know quite well what a climax feels like, I can tell you the feeling I experienced then was the same! So, insert that into your theories.

 

[chicago]

๏_๏

 

[Wolf]

Well, that happened.

 

[ISUmark]

I don't get much into the analytics of it. I know I like it so I do it. I don't do things I don't like. Asking why you like what you like is like asking why we breathe air or why we blink. We just do.

 

[PiedPiper]

At a sufficiently early age, one may understandably be unable to precisely associate tickling with sex,.. in terms of ideas. No frame of reference, right? However we've probably developed a passing acquaintance with the notion of "power" by that age, though not of sex. Maybe power vibes link up with tickling via a different chemical mechanism. In fact, the POWER THING may actually be the linkage under consideration. After all,... no matter what your angle is on tickling - M/F,.. 'lee/'ler,.. S/M,... non-con,... et cetera,.... its erotic connections are transacted in some sort of power dynamic. An instinct more basic than sex, maybe. I think we learn to respond to, and appreciate "power" before we begin investigating sex. And what we've learned stays with us.

 

[kingp]

I will just say that i was about 2 when i first tickled a nylon foot and it left such an impression that, like a junkie, i have been trying to reach that euphoria ever since. I believe there are fetishists and those how simply enjoy tickling here.
Those that need it and those who want it. There is a difference. I find it interesting linking it to orientation. I do think it is pretty deep.
I was a little bummed by it though because it seemed like i am more fucked up than i thought and this is more rare than previously thought.

 

[OmahaTickler]

I think we have to be careful when we toss around "sexual" in pre-puberty because something can be sexual even though you're not aware it's sexual at the time. No, youths before puberty, unless they've been "sexualized" by abuse/rape or other stimuli (and even then, their ability to grasp what happened to them at the time likely is minimal), may not consciously view tickling as sexual, but I have personal anecdotal evidence that there are primal wheels turning before puberty, even if the physical machinery (hormones, etc.) aren't developed yet. I first felt excited and drawn to bare female feet around age 4 or 5. I had no urge to masturbate, no attraction to the women sexually ---- it was visceral, it was instinctive and it was very real and intense. The tickling aspect came a little later, as I learned about body ticklishness in general. Now, when I arrived at puberty, most of the framework was already there. Puberty simply brought it all together in my libido, and my feet/tickling fetishes were hard-wired into my sexual being. I was not "sexualized" as a youth by any abuse or other means. I was rarely tickled by relatives, as it wasn't done much in my family, nor was I around anyone who influenced me in this regard. Based on the other anecdotal evidence on this thread, I think it must be accepted that there's likely a primal link to the fetish, independent of puberty and sexual development. I'm not going so far to say it's on the genetic level, but at the very least, there may be a predisposition in some people, possibly through different brain development from "normal" people.

 

[Aeveirra]

Um... no dude its obviously not.
Im not doing an experiment here. Im just making observations, and connecting the dots via reliance on 4.5 years of studying neurolobioligical systems and anatomy.

NO ONE knows with certainty about the exact origins of tickling paraphilia.
This simply a set of theories based on both biolgical facts, and data from surveying numbers TMF members .

Because the data resulting in a majority of people sharing many of the same experiences, I attempted to offer potential explanations.
* This wasn't meant to be an "argument", nor an "experiment" of any kind. Its supposed to be a thought provoking.

Doesn't exactly sound like a rigorous application of the scientific method.

 

[Aeveirra]

I will just say that i was about 2 when i first tickled a nylon foot and it left such an impression that, like a junkie, i have been trying to reach that euphoria ever since. I believe there are fetishists and those how simply enjoy tickling here.
Those that need it and those who want it. There is a difference. I find it interesting linking it to orientation. I do think it is pretty deep.
I was a little bummed by it though because it seemed like i am more fucked up than i thought and this is more rare than previously thought.

!!!! Aww, no that wasn't my intention! Based on the current neurological understanding of orientation, it seems at least plausible that this type of link could be present. Even when you imagine the comparable heuristic proportions of homosexuality and knismolagnia. (based on tickling's apparent rarity as a paraphilia) You were right to note how rare knismolagnia is. I thought it should be more common, but the orientation link may be why its not.
we are biologically wired to not like being tickled, hence the defensive reactions. yet, via reactions we are encouraged to do it to others.
It's very interesting when you stop for a moment, and think about the science behind whats really going on there.

!! Remember: Its not 'mental illness' or anything like that, and your not 'fucked up' because of that either.
if anything, its just a potentially unique feature of this particular paraphilia.
Which in turn, would people like us make us more unique individuals in the world.

Btw, you were.... 2 years old?! Thats pretty amazing that you can remember that! just.... how??
It could very well have been one of your first (if not- THE first memory you've ever created)
(only you know that lol), but still, I think your pretty awesome. !
- - Im Glad you found this interesting!

 

[sman9000]

This is awesome! Keep it up!! Thanks

 

[Aeveirra]

lol, duh of course people still have fun..... However, its OK for some of us not be completely in the dark about it either, and
actually take some time to look into it. As something many on here are passionate about, i thought it would be nice to try and learn more about it.
There are many, many short and random 'fun' posts on here, too many that really.
But - Hardly any bother to explore the amazing and complex inner workings of this;
and honestly, it saddens me that this bores you.

It never ceases to amaze, amuse, and annoy me how goddamn deadly serious people are about this fetish, and the desire for it to be taken seriously.
For heaven's sake, doesn't anyone just have have fun with it anymore?


P.S. Get off my lawn.

 

[Wolf]

lol, duh of course people still have fun..... However, its OK for some of us not be completely in the dark about it either, and
actually take some time to look into it. As something many on here are passionate about, i thought it would be nice to try and learn more about it.
There are many, many short and random 'fun' posts on here, too many that really.
But - Hardly any bother to explore the amazing and complex inner workings of this;
and honestly, it saddens me that this bores you.

It doesn't bore me.
Pseudo-scientific ramblings and cloudy, intellectually dishonest statements do.
You're pretending to be something you're not. No one with the credentials you hint at calls homosexuality a mental illness.

 

[chicago]

Speaking of which, the psychiatrist that declassified homosexuality as a mental illness BACK IN 1973, Robert Spitzer, recently died at the age of 83.


http://www.medicaldaily.com/robert-...sify-homosexuality-mental-illness-dies-366976

 

[kingp]

Thank you Aeve for your note. Yes, i not only remember it but my parents had photographed the day. My Aunt is who i had tickled that day and the pictures were from that day. Just a coincidence. It wasnt my earliest memory but it was an early memory. It was powerful at the time so it stuck. I could draw a diagram of the apartment i lived in before i was 4 and get the windows and doors right. Just some things stuck with me.
Aeve, i was just hoping the tickling was more common than it seems to be. Its special, and id like to share it with the world, but not possible.
I guess in a way it must be how exceptionally intelligent people think of the rest of us.

 

[silenttickles]

Let me just say I'd love to be part of the experimenting process XD