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Updated: May 14, 2026
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Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
Published on: March 1, 2017
Mirror-touch synaesthesia changes representations of self-identity.
Lara Maister1, Michael J Banissy, Manos Tsakiris
1Lab of Action & Body, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. lara.maister@rhul.ac.uk
Neuropsychologia
|February 9, 2013
Summary
Individuals with mirror-touch synaesthesia (MTS) experience touch when seeing it on others. Observing touch on another person altered MTS individuals' self-face recognition, blurring self-other boundaries.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Mirror-touch synaesthesia (MTS) involves experiencing touch when observing it on others.
- Previous research focused on somatosensory processing in MTS.
- The impact of synaesthetic touch on self-representation is largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how observing touch in MTS affects self-face recognition.
- To determine if synaesthetic touch alters the mental representation of the self.
- To explore the boundaries between self and other in MTS.
Main Methods:
- Adapted the 'enfacement illusion' paradigm.
- MTS and control participants observed a face being touched or not.
- Self-face recognition was measured using morphed images before and after visual stimuli.
Main Results:
- MTS individuals showed altered self-recognition after observing touch on another.
- Images initially perceived as 50% self/other were more often recognized as self post-stimulus.
- No significant changes were observed in control participants.
Conclusions:
- Observing touch in MTS alters self-representation, not just sensory experience.
- Synaesthetic touch can blur the distinction between self and other.
- Findings support a multisensory model of self-representation.
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