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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 16, 2026

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

Specular vision-touch synaesthesia: two reference frames.

Rebekah C White¹, Anne M Aimola Davies

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK. Rebekah.White@psy.ox.ac.uk

|November 20, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Individuals with specular vision-touch synaesthesia (VTS) experience tactile sensations in different reference frames. This study reveals competing spatial frames influence how VTS is perceived, impacting sensory experiences.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology
Sensory Perception

Background:

Vision-touch synaesthesia (VTS) involves experiencing tactile sensations when viewing touch. Two subtypes, anatomical and specular VTS, are known.
Specular VTS typically involves mirror-reflected tactile sensations relative to the viewed touch.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the reference frames used in specular VTS.
To explore variations in sensory experience within the specular VTS subtype.

Main Methods:

Two participants with specular VTS were presented with visual stimuli of touch on a prosthetic hand.
Participants reported the location of their synaesthetic tactile sensations.
Analysis focused on whether sensations were mapped to a hand-centered or viewer-centered reference frame.

Main Results:

Both participants experienced synaesthetic tactile sensations on their right hand when viewing touch on a prosthetic left hand.
Participant RS reported sensations in a hand-centered (spatial) reference frame.
Participant NC reported sensations in an external (viewer-centered) reference frame.

Conclusions:

Specular VTS is not monolithic and can involve different spatial reference frames.
Competing reference frames (hand-centered vs. viewer-centered) influence the experience of synaesthetic tactile sensations in VTS.