Mirror-touch Synesthesia and Empathy

Questions:

(1) Why? Why was this research conducted? What is the hypothesis? The journal article selected is entitled, “Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy” (Banissy & Ward, 2007). Research into how we empathize with others has shown that common brain areas are activated whether we are experiencing something or observing another’s experience. This paper addressed the question as to whether individuals with mirror-touch synesthesia could be studied to better understand empathy. Mirror-touch synesthesia is the experience in which the observation of another person being touched results in a tactile sensation in the observer’s body. In other words, the same brain areas activated by touch can be activated in those experiencing mirror-touch synesthesia by simply observing someone being touched.

(2) Who? Whom are they studying? The study recruited 10 mirror-touch synesthetes and 20 control individuals. Of the synesthesia group, 6 were female and 4 were male, ranging in age from 12 to 52. The controls were matched for both age and gender.

(3) How? How did they do the research? Two experiments were designed. Participants were asked to report the location of a touch either on the cheek or on the hand- left, right, both, or none depending on which side of the body was touched. At the same time, they were asked to watch a video of another person being touched but to ignore the video. For the synesthetes, observing the touch gave them a physical sensation of being touched in addition to the actual touch they were experiencing. They along with controls were given either a congruent or incongruent trial. In the congruent trial, the observed touch was in the same location and on the same side of the body as the actual touch. In the incongruent trial, the observed touch was on the opposite side from the actual touch. Each participant was also given a previously validated empathy quotient (EQ) test to determine his or her level of cognitive empathy (predicting another’s mental state by cognitive processes) and affective empathy (experiencing an emotional response due to another’s mental state).

(4) What? What were the results of their study? On the cheek and hand touch tests; the synesthetes had more errors than controls. For example, a synesthete might say they were touched on both cheeks if the actual touch was on the right cheek and the observed touch was on the left cheek. Compared to controls the synesthetes were less able to distinguish between a real touch and an observed touch. This result is consistent with the expected experience of a synesthete having the sensation of touch simply by observing someone being touched. In addition, the synesthetes scored higher on the emotional intelligence subscale of the EQ than controls but did not score higher on the cognitive empathy subscale.

(5) What? What did they think these results mean? What are the implications for practical application, or for further research? The authors conclude that the results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that we empathize with others through a process of neural simulation of the experience others are having. They also limit their conclusion due to the EQ outcome. Empathy likely involves many different processes and they conclude that while mirror-touch brain systems modulate some aspects of the ability to empathize, they do not modulate all aspects of empathy. Further studies of mirror-touch synesthesia may provide insight into how we empathize with those around us.  

Reference

Banissy, M.J., & Ward, J. (2006). Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy. Nature Neuroscience 10, 815-816.