The Co-occurrence of Mirror-Touch With Other Types of Synaesthesia. (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ward, Jamie
• Is Part Of: Perception. Volume 48:Number 11(2019)
• Page Start: 1146
• Page End: 1152
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: mirror-touch -- synaesthesia -- colour -- prevalence; Perception -- Periodicals; Perception -- Periodicals; Perception; Periodicals; 153.705
• DOI: 10.1177/0301006619875917
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-0066

Abstract

People with mirror-touch synaesthesia report tactile experiences on their body when seeing other people touched. Although this has been referred to as a type of synaesthesia, it is unknown whether it co-occurs with more commonly accepted variants of synaesthesia (e.g., grapheme-colour). If it did, then this would imply a common or partly shared causal mechanism. To this end, a sample of verified grapheme-colour synaesthetes ( N = 80) were given a recently developed online diagnostic measure of mirror-touch. The prevalence in this group (∼20%) was around 10 times higher than the general population. Moreover, performance on this measure was significantly related to the self-report of mirror-touch given, on average, 3 years earlier.