Perhaps you've seen someone bump their head or stub a toe and thought, "That had to hurt." Well, for some people, watching such an event actually does hurt. An unknown number of people have mirror-touch synesthesia, a condition that causes them to feel the touches that they see others receive. For example, if a mirror-touch synesthete sees someone touched on the cheek, she will feel as if her own cheek has been touched.
 Photographer: Geotrac/Agency: Dreamstime A mirror-touch synesthete could feel pain from watching someone receive a shot. |
Mirror-touch synesthesia is believed to be caused in part by mirror neurons, which produce an extremely developed sense of emotional empathy. Mirror neurons activate when an individual is performing an activity or, to a lesser extent, when an individual is watching someone perform an activity. People who have mirror-touch synesthesia have very active mirror neurons, meaning that the effect is greatly enhanced. They not only empathize with the pain of others -- often it feels to synesthetes as if the pain is also being applied to them as well.
Besides feeling the pain and touches of others, mirror-touch synesthetes often are very in touch with the feelings of others. Many claim no understanding of how people can laugh at others' misfortune, and action and horror movies are too unbearable to watch.
In 2003, Sarah Jane-Blakemore, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, was giving a lecture during which she mentioned that she had heard that some people could feel contact, such as a pinch, that they only observed. A 39-year-old woman at the event responded that she thought all people experienced that. For her entire life, this woman hadn't known that her mirror-touch synesthesia was unusual. Researchers later discovered that 11 of the woman's relatives had another type of synesthesia known as color-grapheme synesthesia.
Recent studies have shed more light on the phenomenon, including one published in the June 2007 issue of the journal "Nature Neuroscience." The study, performed by UCL researchers Jamie Ward and Michael Banissy, used brain scans, touch tests and questionnaires to detect mirror-touch synesthesia in 10 subjects. Brain scans showed hyperactivity in certain areas of the brain when mirror-touch synesthetes saw someone being touched. In touch tests, supposed mirror-touch synesthetes more often mistook observed touch for having the touch applied to themselves.
Further research about mirror-touch synesthesia could lead to discoveries about other empathy-related conditions such as schizophrenia, Asperger's syndrome and autism. For example, one symptom of autism is difficulty understanding the emotions of others. Learning why some people are highly sensitive to others' emotions could teach us more about those who aren't.
On the next page, we'll look at some other, better known types of synesthesia.
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