3/15/2023 0 Comments Mirror touch synthesia![]() "There's something quite self-centered about it," Ward said. In other words, while they might have more of an idea of what someone is going through, that doesn't mean they are better equipped to deal with the problem. They can pick up on someone's pain, pleasure, or distress fairly well, but that doesn't necessarily mean they empathise more. He said they also tend to score higher on some measures of empathy, but it's more to do with emotional reactivity than sympathising. For example, they are better at noticing a subtle facial cue that others might miss. She may be right – but there is some evidence that people with mirror-touch are slightly above average at picking up on the emotions of others, Ward said. Pau, however, said she empathises a lot with others, which she doesn't necessarily see as a result of her mirror-touch. "mirror-touch isn't mind-reading, and emotions and feelings are not physical in any sort of way." Isabelle, for example, doesn't feel anything beyond the physical. Like all brain conditions, there are no absolute rules, and people's experiences with mirror-touch synesthesia vary considerably. "It's not going to fill all the areas, but you're going to have some activation – it's just not going to be at this high level." ![]() "If I put you into a brain scan, assuming you don't have mirror-touch synesthesia, and I show you videos of a body being touched, you'll actually have some activation in parts of the brain that are typically associated with touch," he said. Medina called this the "overactivity hypothesis." So our brains may all have the potential to physically feel what other people do, it's just that the ability is amplified in the people who mirror-touch synesthesia. Everyone does a mirroring of touch but not everybody experiences it consciously… They are relying on a similar underlying system that we all have." "If we saw a human being touched we would also activate the system but to a lesser extent. "Your eyes can't tell if it's your body or not, but your brain can," Ward said. MRI studies have shown there are more neural connections in parts of their brains associated with touch perception.Īlso, they tend to have less matter in other areas of the brain, which Ward says may be associated with regulating these touch sensations, or figuring out who the touch belongs to. In people with mirror-touch synesthesia, their brains may fail to regulate the extent to which these neurons respond. "I enjoyed it so much that every morning as I went past I would stand and watch him for a while enjoying this fabulous sensation – although I had to clear off after a while in case he thought there was something odd about me staring at him like that or thought I fancied him or something." "I got this really pleasant feeling in hand and down my arm as if I was hitting the ball myself, but without making any effort," she said. When she sees people being hit, punched, stroked, prodded, or injected, she experiences a similar sensation on the same part of her own body.įor example, once when she was watching a group of boys playing paddleball in a swimming pool, she would almost feel like she was batting the ball herself. Pau has something called mirror-touch synesthesia, which is a brain condition that seems to amplify people's sensation of touch so much they can essentially physically feel what others feel. "I've always hated screen kisses (or never been able to watch them) because… well I don't want to kiss them, do I?"
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