My strange situation

[guitman69]

I just want to know if anyone has ever heard of this.

Almost 5 years ago, I was in a motorcycle accident which left me paralyzed from the waist down. I can't feel a thing down there.

Now here's the weird thing. My wife and I discovered that in the places that I am ticklish in, when I'm horny, they feel really good (and not ticklish anymore 😉 ). It's almost as if these areas have taken over for the parts of me that no longer work.

When I'm not turned on, I laugh when she tickles me.

Before the accident, I would get turned on whenever a woman tickled me, so I wonder if this has something to do with a previous connection in my mind of tickling and sex.

Do any of you have any thoughts on this?


-guitman69

 

[dvnc]

Whether or not it's a physical or psychological response, it likely makes sense to most of us reading this forum.

Being as you had such an interest before your unfortunate accident, there's argument that the situation is, at the very least, augmented psychologically. Psychological response plays into tickling strongly, after all. It's why you can't tickle yourself, even though you're able to stimulate your nerves, hurt yourself, etc.

I'm fascinated by your post, and glad to read that you've got such a response to enjoy.

dvnc

 

[ticklishbod20]

Neurology explains it.

Guitman69,

This is an actual physical phenomenon which is analogous to the crossed sensations an amputee feels (i.e. touching the nose of an amputee will make him feel as if his hand has been touched). It's not just "psychological".
Physiologically, this is known unofficially as "sprouting." In your cerebral cortex, you have a place called the somatosensory cortex (which for the interested, is in the parietal lobe). Your somatosensory cortex is comprised of a map of every skin covered body part on your body (which for the interested, is known as your somatosensory homunculus). For example, towards the lateral part of your head, on your somatosensory cortex, all of the sensory nerves from the skin of your face and and particularly lips receive input from the body.

Now, what's really kind of cool is that towards the medial part of the somatosensory cortex (in the area between your two hemispheres), the somatosensory cortex receives input from your genitals, and DIRECTLY adjacent to the input from your genitals is input from your feet (and then your legs, and so on)!

Now, since you have been paralyzed from the waist down, what is likely to have happened is that the somatosensory cortex will have been modified (perhaps through atrophy of the areas that normally received input from your feet and legs). But the human body is always adept at compensating for damage. In fact, it's been documented that certain areas of the cerebral cortex will "sprout" onto others to compensate for the damage. In your case, I speculate that the nerves coming in from your feet in the somatosensory cortex "sprouted" onto the part of your somatosensory cortex which normally is innervated by input from your genitals. Since not all of your feet nerves probably died, the few that still get to your somatosensory cortex made connections with the somatosensory area covered by your genitals (and it's possible that your genital somatosensory area also took over the feet somatosensory area, but that's another story). Thus, input from your feet will be sensed by your genitals, and this could (I think) be translated into some sort of erotic sensation.

By the way, it's my own personal hypothesis that this method of "sprouting" can also explain foot fetishes and the subsequent tickling fetishes (i.e. feeling aroused by having our feet fondled or tickled). I'm sure that there are many other plausible mechanisms by which this takes place, but this could be one way.

Also, I'm not an M.D. but I do study neurobiology as an undergraduate, and next year I'll be at medical school. If I learn anything new there regarding fetishes and how we got them, I'll be certain to pass on the info to my beloved tickling community.

Best wishes,
ticklishbod20

 

[guitman69]

Thanks for the input. Here's the thing though, it's not tickling in my feet that I am feeling, it on my upper body.


One thing I found really interesting was when you mentioned the sprouting and how when an amputee touches there nose, they feel it in the hand that is no longer there. If I am touched in an area around the point that sensation stops (an area about a couple inches wide going just below my belly button, T11)I do have a sensation down the backs of my legs. I, unfortunatly, have not found a spot though where when touched feels like my genitals are being stimulated.

-guitman69