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"That's not a real body": identifying stimulus qualities that modulate synaesthetic experiences of touch

Henning Holle1, Michael Banissy, Thomas Wright

  • 1School of Psychology and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.

Consciousness and Cognition
|January 18, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Mirror-touch synaesthesia occurs when seeing touch on others triggers tactile feelings. This study found that observing touch on real bodies intensifies these synaesthetic sensations more than on artificial or depicted bodies.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Sensory Perception

Background:

  • Mirror-touch synaesthesia is a rare neurological condition.
  • It involves experiencing tactile sensations when observing touch on another person.
  • The factors influencing the intensity of this synaesthetic experience are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how visual characteristics of touch stimuli affect mirror-touch synaesthesia.
  • To determine if the perceived reality of the body being touched modulates the synaesthetic response.
  • To explore the interplay between bottom-up sensory input and top-down cognitive factors in synaesthesia.

Main Methods:

  • Fourteen individuals with mirror-touch synaesthesia participated.
  • Participants watched videos of touch events applied to various stimuli.
  • They reported the presence, location, and intensity of induced tactile sensations.

Main Results:

  • Synaesthetic sensations were significantly stronger when observing touch on real human bodies.
  • Observing touch on dummy bodies, pictures, or body parts elicited weaker sensations.
  • The intensity of the synaesthetic experience varied based on the stimulus's perceived reality.

Conclusions:

  • Mirror-touch synaesthesia is modulated by more than just visual-tactile sensory processing.
  • Top-down cognitive factors, such as distinguishing real from artificial body representations, influence synaesthetic intensity.
  • This suggests a complex interaction between sensory input and cognitive interpretation in synaesthesia.

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