how can some people not be ticklish?

[SadCuzNotTcklsh]

I think about this alot, obviously, but recently I tried to simplify it.

Ticklish person: tickle their feet and they feel it through body's sense of touch.
Non-tickling person: tickle their feet and they feel it through body's sense of touch.

Ticklish person: reactions to the touch/tickling
Non-ticklish person: does not reaction to the touch/tickling

So both physically feel what is being done to them, but only one responds to it? Which leads me to believe, its gotta be something mental that prevents someone from being ticklish. Then again why doesn't the ticklish person have that same "ability" to not reaction to the touch/tickling? and why does the non-ticklish person do?

Sounds like I am proving the ticklish response is a mental one not physical, otherwise since all humans are wired the same (excluding those with some sort of disability), shouldn't all the physical reactions to touch be the same? Now it sounds like I complicated it again....

 

[BellybTickler]

Well, human beings may be all in all wired the same, but that doesn't mean they're robots coming off an assembly line. It's a physical reaction between the nerves on the skin and the brain; certain places don't register ticklish on me, and for a good amount of people, their whole body doesn't register it. If it were mental, then you could make yourself be ticklish, which isn't all that probable.

 

[jrotanes]

I'm one of those usually not so ticklish people. Forget the armpits. They're dead. The best place to start with me is the backs of my legs. But even there I'm not always very ticklish. Only once did my partner really have me thrashing. She had already "serviced" me, and then began running her fingers on my legs while I was tied down. She only did it for about 5 minutes. Wish she had done it for an hour. It was torture while it was happening, but the endorphin high lasted for 24 more hours. I would endure that "torture" again for the rush afterward! I keep trying.

 

[Mane'o]

it's both physical and mental. same way people react differently to hot and cold or to pain or to smells or sounds. we are all wired differently. you are really asking the age old question, is it nature (born that way - a physical thing) or nurture (raised that way or a mental/social thing). it is a combination of both. we are not, in fact, all wired the "same" but we are all wired "similarly" and it is the slim difference between similarities that makes all the difference in whether one is extremely ticklish or not at. all. if we were all wired the same we'd all have the same sense of smell which we do not. we'd all have the same 20/20 vision which we do not. we'd all have the same aural acuity which we do not. we'd all have the same sense of taste which we do not. and we'd all have the same sens of touch which we do not. the mental aspect certainly impacts all senses and can help individuals have a greater or lesser reaction to any of the senses.

 

[GEORGIATKLER]

Look at the "bell curve" distribution of ticklishness( looking at it as just another trait) across the entire population. At either extremes are the "can be tickled by telekenisis" group( it's always the thought that counts...) and then the "nanna nanna boo boo, never ticklish" group. Even among the ticklish, each 'lee has their own tickle map, so to speak, which can further vary given the situation or particular day. The ability of some to "fake" it or even hide their sensitivity makes the game even more interesting or frustrating, given your point of view.

 

[stockytickler]

The reason tickling works is a design flaw in our nervous system. We had to be sensitive enough to be aware there's a bug on us, but that gets exploited by evil people (called lers) to overwhelm and confuse the brain with stimulation which translates through the pleasure center as laughter in quite a lot of people. The nonticklish brain isn't processing these signals in the same way as probably most. The brain is likely saying "I know what's going on and I'm handling it." or it's not routing through pleasure or it's not registering at all.

Figure out if you respond to tickling any differently if you are drunk or your mind or brain chemistry is altered in some way. Find out what your reaction to a ladybug landing on you and crawling around for a bit is. Stroke the tip of a feather along the underside of your forearm, see what your brain is doing with that information. Then let someone else do it and see if it feels is any different.

If it does, you may have better luck drunk and in a blindfold where you can't anticipate the touch or process it properly.

Or not. I'm not really a neurobiologist. Just a ler (well, and a lee) 🙂