I've Got a Funny Feeling

I’ve blogged recently about both synesthesia, the cross-wiring of the senses, and empathy. As it turns out, there has been research connecting the two. A 2007 study by Michael Banissy and Jamie Ward utilized the unique properties of the synesthetic brain to explore the spectrum of empathic ability. These particular synesthetes have mirror-touch synesthesia, in which observations of physical touch on others elicit a tactile response on one’s own body. Participants were shown another individual being touched on the cheeks and hands, but told to ignore them. They were simultaneously being touched in the same regions and reporting their tactile experience. A control group of non-synesthetes were included for comparison.

What’s interesting about the responses of synesthetic individuals is the variation in their mirrored tactile reactions. For instance, when synesthetes viewed someone being touched on the right cheek, some of them reported feelings on the right cheek, others on the left, and to various extremes. This is typical in studies of synesthetes; it’s also what complicates research in this area. Synesthesia appears in numerous forms, across differing sensory pathways. The experience is slightly variable for each affected individual. For instance, for those who associate numbers and letters with specific colors, color matches vary greatly. Also, some report actually viewing letters/numbers in color, while others are simply aware that they are associated with color.

So how did the synesthetes perform on these tactile response tasks? They reported a significantly higher number of mirror touch errors than controls, meaning they weren’t distinguishing as well between synesthetic response to the touch of another and the feeling of being touched.  However, their response time was faster than that of controls when personal touch matched that of the other individual. Banissy and Ward conclude that empathy is multifaceted, and that these synesthetes are higher than non-synesthetes in emotional reactivity, but not in other areas (social skills, cognitive empathy). The data supports the idea that empathy is dependent upon shared interpersonal experience.

Original article: http://daysyn.com/Banissy_Wardpublished.pdf