For this week’s in-class “NeuroSlam” I spoke about a paper on mirror-touch synesthesia– a condition in which an individual reports feeling an actual tactile sensation in response to seeing someone else touched. For example, this synesthete would feel as if someone touched their arm if they saw someone touching another’s arm. Inspired by an fMRI of a mirror-touch synesthete that showed hyperactivity of mirror-touch network neurons (mirror neurons we all have in the somatosensory cortex, premotor cortex, and parts of the temporal lobe that fire in response to touch and viewing touch), researchers Micheal J Banissy and Jamie Ward wanted to study empathy in mirror-touch synesthetes as empathy is believed to be related to mirror neurons.
In addition to providing evidence for mirror-touch synesthetes experiencing a synesthesia very similar to actual touch, Banissy and Ward measured empathy in these individuals using a psychological test. They reported that synesthetes scored much higher in the “emotional reactivity” subset of the empathy quotient but not in “cognitive empathy” or “social skills.” This supports the theory that mirror neurons do play a role in empathy as well as the idea that empathy is a complex neurological process that can’t be be wholly described in one neural network.
Banissy, M.J., Ward, J. Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy. Nature Neuroscience 10, 815 – 816 (2007)
Published online: 17 June 2007 | doi:10.1038/nn1926
This is a little kooky, but I think it may be related in some way. A few times in my life I’ve had a bee hover over a spot on my arm or leg and have consequently felt an acute itching sensation right on the area where it seems to want to land. (And no, it’s not air currents.) It’s a very real sensation, and it happens without the bee ever touching me!
I always get distracted by the fact that I’m feeling something without direct contact. Obviously, in anticipation of being stung, I’m mustering a lot of energy to project a feeling of being touched. I’ve tried to do this in the absence of the bee, but without the actual danger present it doesn’t work nearly as well.
Whenever this happens it makes me aware that we have a lot more control over our bodies than we will ever be aware of by just sitting around and watching TV. Anyways, just thought I’d share. : )
Sounds much like the empathetic pains close twins get for their counterparts injuries.
Am I the only one here that immediately wondered how awesome it would be to watch porn as a mirror-touch synesthete?
How related is this to phenomena of body mapping? I know there are experiments that show you can coopt that mental apparatus by touching someone’s leg under a table while having them watch the table being touched. When the experimenter then slams the table with a hammer you get a neurological flinching from pain.
Makes you wonder how you really know where your body is.
Brownian! These are my young students. They don’t know what “porn” is yet.
Is this similar to the uncomfortable tingling feeling I get in my nether parts when I see a video of a skater rack his groin on a hand rail?
Is this related to the internal sensation one may get when suddenly viewing another, in a situation that might cause that person some pain?
I often get a cold (adrenalin?) and “painful” (without any actual, physical pain) sensation in the pit of my stomach, when I see someone… perhaps a young child for instance, take a fall and anticipate their pain. This happens quickly, prior to the completion of the fall, and before any knowledge of the child’s actual (or lack thereof) pain…
I say that I feel a sensation of pain; I clarify that as a sensation of intense discomfort to the degree that I dislike it, when it happens. :o)
I have an embarrassing tic, something that probably should have been pruned out of my neural network after infancy, but which has stubbornly held on.
You know how babies mimic facial expressions: smiles, looks of surprise, etc.?
I do that, too.
It generally hits when I’m tired or distracted (like most tics), and usually only extreme expressions will set me off. My husband and son take enormous delight in making twisted Quasimoto faces in the middle of normal dinner table conversation to see my face tic into a mirror image.
They especially enjoy it if they can make me do it twice in a row. Or in public.
Does this have any relation to synesthesia?
#5, see the Golden Rule: they’ll know it when they see it…
I wonder how synesthetes handle “lie detectors.”
Everyone, except psychopaths, do the facial mimicry thing to various degrees. It sounds like you’ve got an extreme case, but it’s entirely normal.
So would this be the opposite end of the Autism Spectrum? At least in some sense – just because mirror synesthetes feel your pain (emotional reactivity) does not mean that they care or can do anything about it (cognitive empathy and social skills, respectively, I am assuming).
Brownian! These are my young students. They don’t know what “porn” is yet.
Ri-i-i-ight.
Anyway, apparently I was the only one. You guys are prudes.
Er, PZ, autistics don’t do the facial mimicry thing either, and despite what some nasty newspapers might say, we’re not all psychopaths. (At least, not *yet*, muhaha.)
Uh, we have an erzatz PZ posting? The Blogmeister’s posts are usually darklighted…
i thought of the same thing, Brownian, but you beat me to it by so long i didn’t bother AOL’ing. but, hey…
<AOL>me too!</AOL>
The way the highlighting works is that the author of the post gets their comments endarkened. I’m not the author here.
Autistics of the world, forgive me. You’re right — they also have greater difficulty with facial mimicry, but they are not psychopaths.
I’m seeing every other comment endarkened, regardless of who posted it. IE v6.
“Anyway, apparently I was the only one. You guys are prudes.”
No I didn’t immediately think of it but, of course, I am now… : – ]
Dang it, and I’ve got work to do.
I’ve experienced this during very intense make-out sessions …
I’ve experienced this during very intense make-out sessions…
Aha! We are all a bunch of debauched fornicators after all. Dustin was right!
More posts on sex! More posts on sex! More posts on sex!
Oh! Of course! Now I feel silly. I’d even convinced myself that the “tone” of the (possibly) inauthentic Dr. Myers wasn’t quite the same as your usual tone!
(There’s a psychology experiment in there someplace…)
Don’t feel bad Kseniya. The exact same thing went through my mind. Wasn’t there an old Paul Simon song that described such an event?
I said, “Hey, Señorita, that’s astute,” I said. “Why don’t we get together and call ourselves an institute?”
Wait; we were both wrong.
I said, “Hey, Señorita, that’s astute,” I said. “Why don’t we get together and call ourselves the Discovery Institute?”
Kseniya,
The same thing crossed my mind, too.
And I think you’re right, it brings to mind all kinds of possible psychology experiments.
In a completely freaky juxtaposition of ideas on this thread, the movie “Last Tango in Paris” flashed through my mind. Narf!
This sorta sounds like ‘just’ an extreme case of empathy – which is what I’d considered the flinching in pain at the sight of others getting hurt, described by some commenters, as.
That of course is perfectly common and exploited by filmmakers to yank our chains. Personally, I get as scared by just watching people balancing on precipices as I do by being up high, myself.
Great post
does the condition change with age? Can one develop the talent?
Then there’s the effect I’ve observed, that thinking about things like lice or fleas will soon have the subject scratching. As our kids have gone through K-6, there have been regular missives from the schools about potential or actual infestations.
I at least, recognise and suppress the sensation. My wife will interpret it as confirmation that she is being bitten and will be all set to go out and buy the chemicals and start treatment. All this without a nit or a louse in sight.
At first, I didn’t interfere, since she was so adamant that something had to be done. I may have gotten through to her, finally, as it has been a while since the last such episode.
I wonder if her willing, illogical belief in invisible supernatural beings facilitates credulity in other areas like this.
Anyone reading this notice their scalp itching?
Why? Is there a bee hovering over my head? 8oO
“I wonder if her willing, illogical belief in invisible supernatural beings facilitates credulity in other areas like this.”
I really do believe you’ve hit on something there.
No, much darker. Check out a few other threads.
Yes.
No, much darker. Check out a few other threads.
Yes.
+quote begins+ “I wonder if her willing, illogical belief in invisible supernatural beings facilitates credulity in other areas like this.”
I really do believe you’ve hit on something there.
Posted by: RamblinDude -quote ends-
Do you mean that there are those who do not believe in even the smallest possibility that there are beings that are invisible [from onelook.com: Quick definitions (invisible)adjective: impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye] to we Carbon-Based Life Forms, and/or that there are no life forms that have abilities beyond those we consider natural? [Quick definitions (supernatural) adjective: not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material.]
That would be putting ourselves in the place of being omnipotent; the only beings in existence, anywhere in the vastness of infinity… There are those that would have us believe that the only beings capable of coming to visit planet Earth, aren’t too much wiser than we are; that they would have no powers beyond those that we can envision and justify.
Or perhaps your reference was to those with “religious” mono or polytheistic ideas?
I’ve struggled for years with the concept that there is no being so powerful that it could not have created life on some scale, somewhere in the vastness of space.
Just curious, no disrespect intended. I’m seriously interested in the suppositional arguments of the Creationists, Evolutionists, et.al.