" That's not a real body": Identifying stimulus qualities that modulate synaesthetic experiences of touch

Henning Holle; Michael Banissy; Thomas Wright; Natalie Bowling; Jamie Ward

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.12.002

" That's not a real body": Identifying stimulus qualities that modulate synaesthetic experiences of touch

Henning Holle, Michael Banissy, Thomas Wright, Natalie Bowling, Jamie Ward^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mirror-touch synaesthesia is a condition where observing touch to another's body induces a subjective tactile sensation on the synaesthetes body. The present study explores which characteristics of the inducing stimulus modulate the synaesthetic touch experience. Fourteen mirror-touch synaesthetes watched videos depicting a touch event while indicating (i) whether the video induced a tactile sensation, (ii) on which side of their body they felt this sensation and (iii) the intensity of the experienced sensation. Results indicate that the synaesthetes experience stronger tactile sensations when observing touch to real bodies, whereas observing touch to dummy bodies, pictures of bodies and disconnected dummy body parts elicited weaker sensations. These results suggest that mirror-touch synaesthesia is not entirely bottom-up driven, but top-down information, such as knowledge about real and dummy body parts, also modulate the intensity of the experience.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	720-726
Number of pages	7
Journal	Consciousness and Cognition
Volume	20
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2010.12.002
Publication status	Published - Sept 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was supported by a grant from the ESRC awarded to J.W. (Grant No. RES-062-23-1150 ). M.J.B. is supported by an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Keywords

Mirror-touch
Observed touch
Simulation
Synaesthesia

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title = "{"} That's not a real body{"}: Identifying stimulus qualities that modulate synaesthetic experiences of touch",

abstract = "Mirror-touch synaesthesia is a condition where observing touch to another's body induces a subjective tactile sensation on the synaesthetes body. The present study explores which characteristics of the inducing stimulus modulate the synaesthetic touch experience. Fourteen mirror-touch synaesthetes watched videos depicting a touch event while indicating (i) whether the video induced a tactile sensation, (ii) on which side of their body they felt this sensation and (iii) the intensity of the experienced sensation. Results indicate that the synaesthetes experience stronger tactile sensations when observing touch to real bodies, whereas observing touch to dummy bodies, pictures of bodies and disconnected dummy body parts elicited weaker sensations. These results suggest that mirror-touch synaesthesia is not entirely bottom-up driven, but top-down information, such as knowledge about real and dummy body parts, also modulate the intensity of the experience.",

keywords = "Mirror-touch, Observed touch, Simulation, Synaesthesia",

author = "Henning Holle and Michael Banissy and Thomas Wright and Natalie Bowling and Jamie Ward",

note = "Funding Information: This study was supported by a grant from the ESRC awarded to J.W. (Grant No. RES-062-23-1150 ). M.J.B. is supported by an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. ",

year = "2011",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.concog.2010.12.002",

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T2 - Identifying stimulus qualities that modulate synaesthetic experiences of touch

AU - Holle, Henning

AU - Banissy, Michael

AU - Wright, Thomas

AU - Bowling, Natalie

AU - Ward, Jamie

N1 - Funding Information: This study was supported by a grant from the ESRC awarded to J.W. (Grant No. RES-062-23-1150 ). M.J.B. is supported by an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship.

PY - 2011/9

Y1 - 2011/9

N2 - Mirror-touch synaesthesia is a condition where observing touch to another's body induces a subjective tactile sensation on the synaesthetes body. The present study explores which characteristics of the inducing stimulus modulate the synaesthetic touch experience. Fourteen mirror-touch synaesthetes watched videos depicting a touch event while indicating (i) whether the video induced a tactile sensation, (ii) on which side of their body they felt this sensation and (iii) the intensity of the experienced sensation. Results indicate that the synaesthetes experience stronger tactile sensations when observing touch to real bodies, whereas observing touch to dummy bodies, pictures of bodies and disconnected dummy body parts elicited weaker sensations. These results suggest that mirror-touch synaesthesia is not entirely bottom-up driven, but top-down information, such as knowledge about real and dummy body parts, also modulate the intensity of the experience.

AB - Mirror-touch synaesthesia is a condition where observing touch to another's body induces a subjective tactile sensation on the synaesthetes body. The present study explores which characteristics of the inducing stimulus modulate the synaesthetic touch experience. Fourteen mirror-touch synaesthetes watched videos depicting a touch event while indicating (i) whether the video induced a tactile sensation, (ii) on which side of their body they felt this sensation and (iii) the intensity of the experienced sensation. Results indicate that the synaesthetes experience stronger tactile sensations when observing touch to real bodies, whereas observing touch to dummy bodies, pictures of bodies and disconnected dummy body parts elicited weaker sensations. These results suggest that mirror-touch synaesthesia is not entirely bottom-up driven, but top-down information, such as knowledge about real and dummy body parts, also modulate the intensity of the experience.

KW - Mirror-touch

KW - Observed touch

KW - Simulation

KW - Synaesthesia

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DO - 10.1016/j.concog.2010.12.002

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SN - 1053-8100

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EP - 726

JO - Consciousness and Cognition

JF - Consciousness and Cognition

IS - 3

ER -

" That's not a real body": Identifying stimulus qualities that modulate synaesthetic experiences of touch

Abstract

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Keywords

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