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Mirror-touch synaesthesia: Difficulties inhibiting the other

Idalmis Santiesteban1, Geoffrey Bird2, Oliver Tew3

  • 1Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior
|July 20, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Individuals with mirror touch synaesthesia (MTS) experience touch when seeing others touched. Research suggests MTS is linked to difficulties inhibiting self-other representations, specifically in imitation tasks.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Mirror touch synaesthesia (MTS) is a rare condition where individuals feel touch on their own body when observing it on others.
  • A proposed link exists between MTS and atypical self-other representation.
  • Understanding this link can illuminate typical social cognition processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between mirror touch synaesthesia and social cognition.
  • To determine if MTS is associated with specific impairments in self-other representation.

Main Methods:

  • Tested participants with MTS and non-synaesthete controls on a battery of social cognition tests.
  • Assessed abilities including imitation-inhibition, visual perspective taking, and theory of mind.

Main Results:

  • The MTS group demonstrated significant impairment in imitation-inhibition compared to controls.
  • No significant differences were found between groups in visual perspective taking or theory of mind.
  • Findings suggest a specific deficit in inhibiting representations of others in MTS.

Conclusions:

  • Mirror touch synaesthesia is associated with a specific deficit in the ability to inhibit representations of other individuals.
  • This highlights the distinct processes involved in social cognition, particularly the control of self-other representations.
  • The findings contribute to understanding the fractionability of social cognitive abilities.
Keywords:
Imitation inhibitionMentalizingMirror-touch synaesthesiaPerspective takingSelf-otherSocial cognitionSynaesthesia

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