On a daily basis my husband finds it hilarious that I am extremely ticklish. Each day I got a poke in my side or a quick squeeze on my knee as my husband laughs. I often wish that he would be ticklish or I could be less ticklish. I don't understand how my husband and other people do not cringe at the sight of incoming hands and crack up with laughter while being tickle tortured. I have tried everything I can think of to control the uncontrollable urge that makes me fall out of the pedicure chair at the nail salon; holding my breathe as my face turns red while repeating silently in my head 'I am not ticklish, this does not tickle, I feel nothing' until I can not hold back any longer and make a extremely audible yelp that everyone in the place hears. The women who work there laugh and give me a smile while the customer sitting next to me says "I know how that is. I am ticklish too."

These experiences have led me to wonder:
Why am I and so many others ticklish?
Why are some people not ticklish?
What can I do to not be so ridiculously ticklish?

After searching the internet, I have realized the answers to these questions are not truly known. Scientists do have a theory as to why people are ticklish. It is believed that we are ticklish to alert us if something is crawling on us such as a bug or spider. Another reason is because our brains can not anticipate where our body is going to be attacked by someone ready to tickle us so it is the element of surprise and fear of being tickled. This is also why it is thought that most people can not tickle themselves since our brains know it is coming.
For more information on this:
www.livescience.com/health/050628_brain_tickle.html
http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-nature/emotions/other/question511.htm

I have also found out that rats are ticklish too and they laugh when being tickled!




What I can't seem to find answers to is why are some people not ticklish and is it possible to make myself not be as ticklish or not ticklish altogether? To find this out, I am planning to do more research focusing in this area of being ticklish. Also I would like to do some experiments to see if I can figure out a way to stop myself from being ticklish now that I know more about why I am ticklish.

I also would like to start looking into the social aspects of tickling. Why do people tickle each other? What is it about tickling that people enjoy? Why do people laugh and smile when being tickled even though they are not enjoying being tickled?