ever wanted to about being

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 12

ever wanted to about being

tickling subjects at the hospital they roamed further afield in the city to a nearby nursery school, a junior school and a teenage club. They also tickled a lot of people at random. And their conclusions? You can literally be “tickled pink” by something. You could even be tickled to death or insane. In fact, an ancient Arab torture was to tickle the soles of a captive’s feet until nervous paralysis had set in.

However, the most tick lish parts of us are the hairs of the nostrils, the surface of the palate and, to a lesser degree, the eyelids, the eyebrows and the orifice of the ear.

You’re wasting your time tickling new born babies because they just aren’t ticklish at all, the researchers say. Any reaction from them is triggered off by other responses such as light, or a fresh place to lie down. From the age of four you were most ticklish, whether you were a boy or a girl, and after that age you’ve been slowly tapering off in sensitivity. Contrary to popular belief, women are not more ticklish than men. There’s a close connection between ticklishness and a person’s emotional nature and present emotional state. It was found that people suffering from various emotional disturbances, as well as people suffering from asthma and arthritis, react more violently to tickling than do other people. You also vary in tick lishness from day to day,

and under different conditions. Ticklish subjects tend to be more fun, as people. As Dr Mark Rich put it, "The non-ticklish man is more likely to arrive home from work each evening and fall asleep in the armchair. But the ticklish person is ready for fun even after a hard day’s work.”

The researchers claim ticklish adults possess keener intelligence and deeper sympathies than the less ticklish, and they naturally respond more to the caresses of affection and lovemaking. When tickling brings chuckles from people, it shows they are the types who laugh their way through hardships and set- backs, claims Dr Maddux.

Tickling is also a state of mind, he says. “Tell a person he mustn’t giggle and his ticklishness increases.”

He believes that the state of ticklishness is a sixth sense, on the same level as hearing, seeing, smelling, taste and touch. He points out that tickling has been associated with long past ancestral touch experiences of hair, tentacles and antennae that go back beyond the beginnings of mankind. However, the last word comes from a clergyman. The Rev. Martin Herbert recently proposed that “To tease and tickle” be added to the marriage vows after "To love and cherish.” He claims that too many marriages are wrecked on the rock of monotony. — Copyright Duo