Evidence Hub

From mirror-touch synesthesia to models of vicarious experience: A reply to commentaries

Ward J, Banissy MJ

Cognitive neuroscience, 2017

Abstract

In this reply to the eight commentaries to our article, we discuss three important challenges. First, we discuss the relationship of mirror-touch to other forms of synesthesia. We note that synesthetic experiences are generally not mistaken as veridical but this does not mean that they lack percept-like qualities. We acknowledge that neither Threshold Theory nor Self-Other Theory offer a direct account of other forms of synesthesia, although we discuss how the latter could. Second, we discuss alternative explanations. Notably predictive coding offers a different way of framing our current theory, and extending it to related phenomena. Finally, we discuss how mirror-touch synesthesia may relate to other atypical experiences of body ownership such as the rubber hand illusion, and somatoparaphrenia.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free