# Is it possible for someone to be tickled to death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 6, 2009, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547 "2009-11-06T11:06:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ryand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@ryand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryand)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/1 "2009-11-06T11:06:17Z")
Re: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/188/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/188/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death) I happen to know that if you successfully tickle someone for a while, and then they go all quiet and stop protesting, it means they’re aroused. By you. That was a surprise… ---
**Author:** ![KatieB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@KatieB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KatieB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/2 "2009-11-06T14:20:10Z")
I don’t think Cecil gets the bad side of tickling. For me, there is _no_ pleasure. It’s painful. When someone tickles me, I’m in agony. At the same time, I go into a full-blown panic if they hold me so I cannot escape. It is torture. Death would come not from laughing to death, but from the stress of that situation. When my husband tried it, once, I got all quiet too. It had gone too far and I was just removing myself mentally from the situation because I couldn’t take it. Don’t assume such things. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/3 "2009-11-06T20:45:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Consider, for instance, that you cannot tickle yourself. But I can tickle myself. Not in the “stroke the ribs sends me to fits”, but run my own hand lightly across the arm and disturb the hairs, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![ryand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@ryand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryand)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/4 "2009-11-08T06:55:36Z")
> [@KatieB](#): > > I don’t think Cecil gets the bad side of tickling. For me, there is _no_ pleasure. It’s painful. When someone tickles me, I’m in agony. At the same time, I go into a full-blown panic if they hold me so I cannot escape. It is torture. Death would come not from laughing to death, but from the stress of that situation. > > When my husband tried it, once, I got all quiet too. It had gone too far and I was just removing myself mentally from the situation because I couldn’t take it. Don’t assume such things. Thankyou for sharing that Kathy - it sounds like you’ve had a profoundly awful experience. I just didn’t think of that possibility although I have a technical letout by specifying “successful”. I shall bear your experience in mind. Ryan ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/5 "2009-11-09T18:50:50Z")
People have all kinds of reaction to tickling. The same person will not always react the same way to the same stimulus. Some people are very ticklish on their feet and not at all ticklish on their upper body, or vice versa. Some people enjoy tickling up to a point but can not be taken past that point. There is also a fairly wide range of touching that can be considered tickling. Someone who might have no reaction to a feather might feel intense pain when someone pokes him/her in the ribs, and might actually enjoy some other form. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/6 "2009-11-09T20:06:14Z")
Quite true. The human body sometimes moves in mysterious ways. Editorial suggestion: in the next-to-last paragraph of the column, the German, Dutch and Old English phrases should be in _italics_, not _with partial underlining_. ---
**Author:** ![Oukile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@Oukile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oukile)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/7 "2009-11-09T20:21:38Z")
[QUOTE=Cecil] Consider, for instance, that you cannot tickle yourself. According to Darwin, this is because “the precise point to be tickled must not be known,” lest some sort of mental tickle-canceling mechanism be automatically invoked. [/QUOTE] [Modern science](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10196573) has confirmed Darwin’s and Cecil’s genial intuition: [QUOTE=Blakemore et al., Nat. Neurosci. 1998] A self-produced tactile stimulus is perceived as less ticklish than the same stimulus generated externally. We used fMRI to examine neural responses when subjects experienced a tactile stimulus that was either self-produced or externally produced. More activity was found in somatosensory cortex when the stimulus was externally produced. In the cerebellum, less activity was associated with a movement that generated a tactile stimulus than with a movement that did not. This difference suggests that the cerebellum is involved in predicting the specific sensory consequences of movements, providing the signal that is used to cancel the sensory response to self-generated stimulation. [/QUOTE] In fact, it is not so much about knowing the exact point in advance, but about anticipating the sensory input creating by tickling. However, the general idea was correct. More details (and speculations) are to be found in [a subsequent article](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10943682). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/8 "2009-11-09T20:27:30Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > But I can tickle myself. Not in the “stroke the ribs sends me to fits”, but run my own hand lightly across the arm and disturb the hairs, for instance. I think it depends what you mean by “tickle.” This kind of tickling that you mention is my absolute favorite. It’s better than sex! (I’m not sure if I’m joking.) Even if it gets to a sensitive or tickly area–like my back, it’s still sort of good, and I kind of warm up to it. But the kind of tickling where you like, jab someone in the tummy or neck or whatnot and go for the gold–that’s the bad kind. Then it’s all, AHHH. So I suppose it’s the area and the amount of force applied. Though for me, I could never really enjoy even a gentle neck tickle though a gentle tummy tickle is possible. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/9 "2009-11-09T21:21:17Z")
I don’t “get” tickling. I have absolutely no reaction to any tickling of any kind, never had one although lots of people have tried tickling me, I just look at them and ask what they are doing. I’m not holding it in, it just feels like somone touching me. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/10 "2009-11-09T21:45:10Z")
> [@Lanzy](#): > > I don’t “get” tickling. I have absolutely no reaction to any tickling of any kind, never had one although lots of people have tried tickling me, I just look at them and ask what they are doing. I’m not holding it in, it just feels like somone touching me. We need to get you a Wartenberg wheel, and stat. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/11 "2009-11-09T22:08:15Z")
I absolutely detest being tickled. I detest being held down and tickled. I will violently react to being tickled. I find it painful. I will also mention that I detest it when someone wanders up and touches me. The only time I will allow being touched is if they ask permission. mrAru is about the only person I will allow to touch me without me getting upset. I could see someone being tickled to death if it triggered either a stroke or heart attck/ ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/12 "2009-11-09T22:16:22Z")
> [@Lanzy](#): > > I don’t “get” tickling. I have absolutely no reaction to any tickling of any kind, never had one although lots of people have tried tickling me, I just look at them and ask what they are doing. I’m not holding it in, it just feels like somone touching me. My little sister is adopted and was in a children’s home for the first 18 months of her life. She does not respond to tickling in any way. The nuns didn’t have much physical contact with the children in their care, and I think this was the result. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/13 "2009-11-10T03:15:45Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > My little sister is adopted and was in a children’s home for the first 18 months of her life. She does not respond to tickling in any way. The nuns didn’t have much physical contact with the children in their care, and I think this was the result. Odd, don’t see how this could happen. ---
**Author:** ![Curveking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Curveking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curveking)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/14 "2009-11-11T02:04:30Z")
I recently died from tickling ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-someone-to-be-tickled-to-death/516547/15 "2009-11-11T07:58:45Z")
> [@Curveking](#): > > I recently died from tickling Did you get better?