Mirror-touch synaesthesia: difficulties inhibiting the other
Mirror-touch synaesthesia: difficulties inhibiting the other
Individuals with mirror touch synaesthesia (MTS) experience touch on their own body when observing others being touched. A recent account proposes that such rare experiences could be linked to impairment in self-other representations. Here we tested participants with MTS on a battery of social cognition tests and found that compared to non-synaesthete controls, the MTS group showed impairment in imitation-inhibition but not in visual perspective taking or theory of mind. Although all of these socio-cognitive abilities rely on the control of self-other representations, they differ as to whether the self, or the other, should be preferentially represented. For imitation-inhibition, representations of the other should be inhibited and self-representations should be enhanced, whereas the opposite is true for visual perspective taking and theory of mind. These findings suggest that MTS is associated with a specific deficit in inhibiting representation of other individuals and shed light on the fractionability of processes underlying typical social cognition.
mirror-touch synaesthesia, synaesthesia, self-other, social cognition, imitation inhibition, perspective taking, mentalizing
1-6
Santiesteban, Idalmis
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Bird, Geoffrey
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Tew, Oliver
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Cioffi, Maria Cristina
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Banissy, Michael J.
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Santiesteban, Idalmis
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Bird, Geoffrey
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Tew, Oliver
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Cioffi, Maria Cristina
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Banissy, Michael J.
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Santiesteban, Idalmis, Bird, Geoffrey, Tew, Oliver, Cioffi, Maria Cristina and Banissy, Michael J.
(2015)
Mirror-touch synaesthesia: difficulties inhibiting the other.
Cortex, .
(doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.019).
Abstract
Individuals with mirror touch synaesthesia (MTS) experience touch on their own body when observing others being touched. A recent account proposes that such rare experiences could be linked to impairment in self-other representations. Here we tested participants with MTS on a battery of social cognition tests and found that compared to non-synaesthete controls, the MTS group showed impairment in imitation-inhibition but not in visual perspective taking or theory of mind. Although all of these socio-cognitive abilities rely on the control of self-other representations, they differ as to whether the self, or the other, should be preferentially represented. For imitation-inhibition, representations of the other should be inhibited and self-representations should be enhanced, whereas the opposite is true for visual perspective taking and theory of mind. These findings suggest that MTS is associated with a specific deficit in inhibiting representation of other individuals and shed light on the fractionability of processes underlying typical social cognition.
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Santiesteban_Mirror.pdf
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Accepted/In Press date: 22 June 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 July 2015
Keywords:
mirror-touch synaesthesia, synaesthesia, self-other, social cognition, imitation inhibition, perspective taking, mentalizing
Organisations:
Psychology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 378958
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/378958
ISSN: 0010-9452
PURE UUID: 0f7b358c-e439-4e14-af3c-6e01def5c853
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Date deposited: 15 Jul 2015 09:28
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:31
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Contributors
Author:
Idalmis Santiesteban
Author:
Geoffrey Bird
Author:
Oliver Tew
Author:
Maria Cristina Cioffi
Author:
Michael J. Banissy
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