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Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy

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Michael J Banissy
Michael J Banissy
Michael J Banissy
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Jamie Ward at University of Sussex
Jamie Ward
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Watching another person being touched activates a similar neural circuit to actual touch and, for some people with 'mirror-touch' synesthesia, can produce a felt tactile sensation on their own body. In this study, we provide evidence for the existence of this type of synesthesia and show that it correlates with heightened empathic ability. This is consistent with the notion that we empathize with others through a process of simulation.
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Mirror-touch synesthesia is
linked with empathy
Michael J Banissy & Jamie Ward
Watching another person being touched activates a similar
neural circuit to actual touch and, for some people with ‘mirror-
touch’ synesthesia, can produce a felt tactile sensation on their
own body. In this study, we provide evidence for the existence
of this type of synesthesia and show that it correlates with
heightened empathic ability. This is consistent with the notion
that we empathize with others through a process of simulation.
Recent research indicates that people’s ability to empathize with others
relies on shared affective neural systems in which common brain areas
are activated during both experience and passive observation. More-
over, building on the discovery of mirror neurons in the monkey
brain
1
, functional imaging has suggested the existence of mirror
systems in humans not only for actions, but also for sensations and
emotions
2–6
. For example, watching another human being touched
(relative to an object being touched) activates the primary and
secondary somatosensory cortex along with premotor and superior
temporal regions. These systems may be crucial for empathy because
they enable the observer to simulate another’s experience by activating
the same brain areas that are active when the observer experiences the
sameemotionorstate
7
. Consistent with this, a recent study provides
evidence that increased activations in the auditory mirror system are
correlated with improved perspective-taking abilities
8
. Moreover, this
correlation not only included premotor areas, but also extended to
somatosensory cortices, indicating that individuals may start to mirror
the tactile consequences of heard actions
8
. Furthermore, there is a
growing body of evidence suggesting that individuals with autistic
spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired activity in the action mirror
system
9,10
, which may lead to the deficits in imitation and empathy
observed in ASD
11
.
One recent study reported a single case of vision-touch or mirror-
touch synesthesia in which the observation of touch on other humans
results in tactile sensations on her own body. Functional magnetic
resonance imaging showed that these conscious tactile experiences are
associated with hyperactivity in the same mirror-touch network that is
evoked by observed touch in nonsynesthete controls in which no overt
tactile experience is elicited
3
. As such, mirror-touch synesthesia offers a
unique opportunity to explore the role that the tactile mirror system
has in empathy.
We developed a new behavioral protocol to provide evidence for the
authenticity of this form of synesthesia (see Supplementary Methods
online). If synesthetic touch uses the same neural circuit as actual touch
and is phenomenologically similar to actual touch, then participants
should have difficulty in discriminating between actual and synesthetic
touch. We designed two experiments, with participants being required
to report the location of actual touch (left, right, both, none) applied to
the facial cheeks in one, and the location of actual touch applied to the
back of the hands (left or right hand) in the other. During the task they
also observed another person being touched, but were asked to ignore
this. All participants gave informed written consent to the experiments.
For synesthetes, but not for controls, the observed touch elicited a
tactile sensation, whose location was either in the same spatial location
as the actual touch (congruent condition) or in a different spatial
location (incongruent condition). For example, in an incongruent trial
they might receive an actual touch on the left cheek (and are thus
required to give the response ‘left’), but a synesthetic touch on the right
cheek. Reporting in the incongruent condition was expected to be
slower and more error prone. In particular, we were interested in errors
in which the participant treated the synesthetic touch as if it were an
actual touch (that is, giving the response ‘both’ in the example above): a
mirror-touch error (Fig. 1).
For some synesthetes an observed touch on the left cheek triggered a
synesthetic sensation on their left cheek (anatomical correspondence),
but for others the synesthetic sensation was felt on the right cheek (as if
they had been looking in a mirror, a specular correspondence). As such,
congruency was determined according to each synesthete’s self report
(see Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Table 1).
On both the faces and hands experiment, synesthetes (n ¼ 10)
produced a higher percentage of mirror-touch errors than did controls
(n ¼ 20). This pattern of errors implies that synesthetic touch feels like
real touch. Synesthetes were significantly faster at identifying a site
© 2007 Nature Publishing Group http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience
Incongruent trail
Visual
display
Participant
Correct response = left
Mirror-touch error = both or right
Correct response = right
Other error = left, both or none
Other error = none
“Left”
“Right”
Synesthetic
touch
Actual
touch
Actual
touch
Synesthetic
touch
Possible
responses
Congruent trail
Figure 1 Participants were required to report the site on which they were
actually touched (that is, left cheek, right cheek, both cheeks or no touch)
while ignoring observed touch (and the synesthetic touch induced by it).
Hands and faces were presented in two separate blocks. In the hands
experiment, the perspective from which touch was observed was manipulated
so that touch was shown from either one’s own or from another’s perspective.
Received 30 January; accepted 18 May; published online 17 June 2007; doi:10.1038/nn1926
Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H OAP, UK. Correspondence should be addressed to M.J.B. (m.banissy@ucl.ac.uk).
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touched on their face or hands when actual touch was congruent with
their synesthesia compared with incongruent trials (Fig. 2). This
pattern was not found when participants observed touch to objects
(see Supplementary Results online).
The empathic ability of mirror-touch synesthetes (n ¼ 10) was
compared with those of nonsynesthetic control participants
(n ¼ 20) and of controls (n ¼ 25) who reported other types of
synesthesia (minimally, grapheme-color) but not mirror-touch
synesthesia. The empathy quotient (EQ) has three main subscales:
(i) cognitive empathy, (ii) emotional reactivity and (iii) social
skills
12,13
. Mirror-touch synesthetes showed significantly higher
scores on the emotional reactivity subscale of the EQ relative to
controls (Table 1), but not on the other subscales. It has been
suggested that the experiencing aspects of affective empathy may
particularly depend on shared interpersonal representations
14
.This
supports the notion that empathy is multifaceted and that the
tactile mirror system may modulate some, but not all, aspects of
this ability.
Given the neural mechanisms thought to be involved in mirror-
touch synesthesia, the differences in empathic ability reported here
appear consistent with the hypothesis that we understand and
empathize with others by a process of simulation
7
.
Note: Supplementary information is available on the Nature Neuroscience website.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
M.J.B. is supported by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
M.J.B. conducted the experiments. J.W. devised the concept. The authors
contributed equally in all other respects.
COMPETING INTERESTS STATEMENT
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Published online at http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience
Reprints and permissions information is available online at http://npg.nature.com/
reprintsandpermissions
1. Rizzolatti, G. et al. Brain 119, 593–609 (1996).
2. Buccino, G. et al. Eur. J. Neurosci. 13, 400–404 (2001).
3. Blakemore, S.J. et al. Brain 128, 1571–1583 (2005).
4. Keysers, C. et al. Neuron 42, 335–346 (2004).
5. Singer, T. et al. Science 303, 1157–1162 (2004).
6. Wicker, B. et al. Neuron 40, 655–664 (2003).
7. Gallese, V. & Goldman, A. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2, 493–501 (1998).
8. Gazzola, V., Aziz-Zadeh, L. & Keysers, C. Curr. Bio. 16, 1824–1829 (2006).
9. Dapretto, M. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 9, 28–30 (2005).
10. Oberman, L.M. et al. Brain Res. Cog. Brain Res. 24, 190–198 (2005).
11. Oberman, L.M. & Ramachandran, V.S. Psych. Bulletin 133, 310–327 (2007).
12. Baron-Cohen, S. et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 358, 361–374 (2003).
13. Lawrence, E.J. et al. Psychol. Med. 34, 911–924 (2004).
14. Lawrence, E.J. et al. Neuroimage 29, 1173–1184 (2006).
© 2007 Nature Publishing Group http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience
Figure 2 Behavioral correlates of mirror-touch
synesthesia. (a,b) Faces experiment. Reaction-
time performance was compared using 2
(congruency) 2 (group) mixed ANOVA.
Participants performed faster overall on congruent
than on incongruent trials (F ¼ 10.69,
P ¼ 0.003). A significant interaction was
observed (F ¼ 10.37, P ¼ 0.003), and this was
a result of synesthetes performing slower on
incongruent trials (t ¼ –2.69, P ¼ 0.028). Mirror-
touch synesthetes had a higher percentage of
mirror-touch errors compared with controls
(t ¼ 2.54, P ¼ 0.032), but showed no differences
in other error types. (c–f) Hands experiment. A 2
(congruency) 2 (group) 2 (perspective) mixed
ANOVA conducted on reaction times revealed a
significant congruency group interaction
(F ¼ 18.93, P o 0.001), which was a result of
synesthetes performing slower on incongruent
trials (t ¼ –3.08, P ¼ 0.022). Analysis of errors
revealed a significant main effect of error type
(F ¼ 9.91, P ¼ 0.004) and of group (F ¼ 12.42, P ¼ 0.002), with participants producing more mirror-touch errors than other errors and synesthetes being
more error prone overall. Notably, there was a significant group error type interaction (F ¼ 10.02, P ¼ 0.004) showing that synesthetes produced particularly
more mirror-touch errors than controls on trials shown from either perspective (own perspective: F ¼ 10.91, P ¼ 0.003, c and d; another’s perspective:
F ¼ 11.62, P ¼ 0.002, e and f). For details of other effects see Supplementary Results. Error bars are ± s.e.m.
850
a
b
c
d
e
f
800
750
700
650
600
Reaction time (ms)
550
500
450
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Reaction time (ms)
100
150
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500
Reaction time (ms)
100
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Error rate (%)
0
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28
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0
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0
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Mirror touch
(n = 9)
Controls
(n = 20)
Congruent
Incongruent
Congruent
Incongruent
Mirror-touch error
Other error
Congruent
Incongruent
Mirror-touch error
Other error
Mirror-touch error
Other error
Mirror touch
(n = 10)
Controls
(n = 20)
Mirror touch
(n = 7)
Controls
(n = 18)
Mirror touch
(n = 9)
Controls
(n = 18)
Mirror touch
(n = 7)
Controls
(n = 18)
Mirror touch
(n = 9)
Controls
(n = 18)
Table 1 EQ scores
Group EQ score
Cognitive
empathy
Emotional
reactivity Social skills
Mirror-touch
(n ¼ 10)
51.30 ± 3.20 19.30 ± 1.27 17.20 ± 1.41 9.70 ± 1.04
Controls
(n ¼ 45)
46.20 ± 1.82 15.51 ± 0.86 13.56 ± 0.74 8.47 ± 0.42
Significance N.S. N.S. P ¼ 0.036 N.S.
Results from nonsynesthetic controls (n ¼ 20) and synesthetes lacking mirror touch
(n ¼ 25) did not differ and were combined. N.S. ¼ not significant. Data shown as
mean ± s.e.m.
2 ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
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... Whereas the self-reported prevalence of mirror-touch synaesthesia is 10.8% (Banissy et al., 2009), behavioural measures indicate that the prevalence may be much lower at 1.6% (Banissy and Ward, 2007). As such, the current understanding of vicarious touch is largely derived from a very small portion of the population. ...
... Moreover, mirror-touch synaesthetes display more pronounced differentiation in their responses when observing touch applied to humans, including human-like objects, compared to non-synaesthetes (Holle et al., 2011;Ward et al., 2018). This suggests a potential link between vicarious touch experiences and heightened empathetic responses toward the recipient of the touch, supported by research showing increased social abilities in this group Banissy and Ward, 2007;Goller et al., 2013;Ioumpa et al., 2019;Maister et al., 2013;Martin et al., 2017;Santiesteban et al., 2015;Ward et al., 2018). While mirrortouch synaesthesia may involve distinct processes beyond shared affective or emotional states (Ward et al., 2018), categorical differences remain debated (Fitzgibbon et al., 2012;Rothen and Meier, 2013;Ward, 2019). ...
... Women also scored higher on emotional empathy, suggesting a potential modulating effect of empathy on vicarious touch experiences. This finding is consistent with some, but not all, prior research that has explored the connection between vicarious touch and emotional empathy (Banissy & Ward, 2007;Goller et al., 2013;Ward et al., 2018 but see Baron-Cohen et al., 2016). However, careful interpretation of these genderrelated findings is necessary. ...
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Vicarious touch refers to the phenomenon where individuals experience tactile sensations when observing another person being touched. This study explored vicarious touch reports in 422 undergraduate students using videos from the Validated Touch-Video Database (VTD), rated for hedonic qualities, arousal, and perceived threat levels. A surprisingly large majority (84%) of participants reported vicarious sensations such as touch, tingling, pressure, and pain, predominantly matching the location of touch to the hands observed in the videos. Contrary to previous studies, we found that vicarious touch was more prevalent in women than men. Additionally, while earlier research suggested a correlation between vicarious sensations and emotional empathy, our data did not support this relationship. The nature and intensity of reported sensations varied strongly with the emotional content of the videos: pleasant touches evoked ticklish or warm sensations, while unpleasant touches often resulted in pain or pressure. Participants often described their sensations as either pleasant or unpleasant, indicating that the affective qualities of observed touch were mirrored in their experiences. Arousal and threat ratings taken from the VTD for each video strongly correlated with the prevalence and intensity of vicarious touch measured here, with painful, highly arousing touches eliciting the strongest responses. Even touch involving non-human objects occasionally triggered similar vicarious sensations. Using a new clustering approach, we identified three distinct profiles of vicarious touch, each characterised by unique sensory experiences, variations in the localisation and intensity of sensations, and differences in responses to human versus object touch. Overall, our results challenge the traditional view that conscious vicarious touch experiences are a rare phenomenon and underscore the diversity of vicarious sensory perception.
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... The VTSC task was adapted from Bolognini et al. (2014), which, in turn, referred to Banissy and Ward (2007). Participants were comfortably seated 75 cm from a computer monitor (LCD, resolution 1280 × 800, refresh rate 60 Hz; head position ensured using a chinrest), on which they were presented with a left and a right hand from an egocentric perspective (stimuli eccentricity: 8 • visual angle; illuminance: 1.3 lx − Hands block). ...
... We employed the VTSC task to test if such impairments in cognitive empathy in BPD reflect alterations in the activity of mirror-like mechanisms in the somatosensory domain (Keysers et al., 2010). Indeed, the VTSC task is an established behavioral paradigm to study the TaMS, as seeing a touch on human body parts is expected to activate the TaMS, and the spatial incongruency between the seen and felt touches should interfere with the ability to report the side of the real touch (Banissy and Ward, 2007;Bolognini et al., 2013;Bolognini et al., 2014). Several quality checks supported the VTSC task functioning as in previous studies. ...
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... The VTSC task was adapted from Bolognini et al. (2014), which, in turn, referred to (Banissy & Ward, 2007). Participants were comfortably seated at 75 cm from a computer monitor (LCD, resolution 1280x800, refresh rate 60 Hz; head position ensured using a chinrest), on which they were presented with a left and a right hand in an egocentric perspective (stimuli eccentricity: 8° visual angle -Hands block). ...
... We hypothesized that such impairments in cognitive empathy in BPD could reflect alterations in the activity of mirror-like mechanisms in the somatosensory domain (Keysers et al., 2010). In the VTSC task used in the present study, seeing a touch on human body parts is expected to activate the TaMS, and the spatial incongruency between the seen touch and the felt one should interfere with the ability of reporting the side of the real touch (Banissy & Ward, 2007;Bolognini et al., 2013Bolognini et al., , 2014. Here, we report evidence of a greater interference effect in pw-BPD compared to HCs, indexed by a poorer performance at the VTSC task in terms of accuracy, only when seeing touch on body parts but not on objects, suggesting that the effect was specific for TaMS activity. ...
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Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (pw-BPD) are characterized by lower levels of cognitive empathy compared to healthy controls (HCs), indicating difficulties in understanding others' perspective. A candidate neural mechanism subtending empathic abilities is represented by the Tactile Mirror System (TaMS), which refers to mirror-like mechanisms in the somatosensory cortices. However, little is known about TaMS alterations in BPD, specifically in terms of brain connectivity within this network. Here, we aimed at providing novel insights on TaMS as neurophysiological candidate for BPD empathic deficits, with a special focus on TaMS connectivity by means of the combined use of transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG). Twenty pw-BPD and 20 HCs underwent a thorough investigation: we collected measures of empathic abilities obtained from self-report questionnaires, behavioral performance in a visuo-tactile spatial congruency task, and TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs) as effective connectivity indexes. In the TMS-EEG session, TMS was delivered over the right primary somatosensory cortex (S1) following the presentation of real touches and visual touches, while 74-channel EEG was continuously recorded. In the visuo-tactile spatial congruency task and the TMS-EEG recording, control conditions with visual touches on objects instead of body parts enabled to disentangle the involvement of TaMS from non-specific effects. The study is the first one employing TMS-EEG in pw-BPD and it has been preregistered before data collection. Consistent with previous findings, results show that pw-BPD reported significantly lower levels of cognitive empathy. Moreover, pw-BPD made significantly more errors than controls in the visuo-tactile spatial congruency task during visual touches on human body parts and not on objects. Finally, pw-BPD displayed a different connectivity pattern from S1-TEPs that was not specific for TaMS: they showed a lower P60 component during touch observation, as well as reduced amplitude of later TEPs responses (after ~100 ms) during real touches. Overall, the present study shows behavioral evidence of TaMS impairment and a more general alteration in the connectivity pattern of the somatosensory network in pw-BPD.
View
... In other words, illustrating the tactile contact with a product via a mere visual representation will induce a vicarious tactile experience. Supports for the shared similarities between vicarious touch and physical touch come from neuropsychological research such that when seeing someone else touch something, people tend to also experience similar tactile sensations (Banissy & Ward, 2007;Keysers & Gazzola, 2009). Therefore, in line with the literature and our overall conceptualization, we predict that choosing from a large (vs. ...
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Although consumers are commonly exposed to numerous choices and the opportunity to touch products when they shop, the literature remains unclear on how both factors simultaneously affect choice. With the growth of online shopping, touch literature has studied the effects of mere touch (i.e., nondiagnostic tactile contact) or vicarious touch (e.g., observing a hand in physical contact with a product or imagining touching a product) to demonstrate that these nondiagnostic haptic inputs can comparably influence consumer attitude, just like diagnostic touch. By investigating the moderating effects of different haptic inputs on choice overload, this research reveals certain conditions in which nondiagnostic haptic inputs operate differently than those of diagnostic touch. We find that both mere touch (Study 1) and vicarious touch (Study 2) help reduce choice overload effects by eliminating the effect of choice set size on choice uncertainty, which is typically observed in the no touch (i.e., control) condition. As haptic cues have been increasingly employed to aid the online shopping experience for consumers, we also find that the choice overload effect is eliminated when an autotelic haptic cue is presented but amplified when an instrumental haptic cue is provided (Study 3). Besides, this research demonstrates that, while the moderating effects of the nondiagnostic haptic inputs are driven by increased personal control, instrumental touch can amplify choice overload effects due to the increased choice difficulty when choosing from large (vs. small) choice sets. These findings help retailers know what type of haptic cues to apply or avoid, as consumers have already been overloaded with abundant choices when they shop online.
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... A secondary, and more direct approach, would be to explore whether mirror-pain synesthetes are more prosocial. What we know is that that mirror sensory synesthesia has been associated with (i) higher self-reported empathy as assessed by questionnaires for emotional reactivity 7,15 and empathic concern 16 (ii) enhanced empathic accuracy while recognising subtle facial expressions 15,17 and (iii) increased self-report affect intensity when looking at emotional pictures 16 . These effects seem restricted to the affective dimension of empathy, as synesthetes do not seem to have enhanced 'theory of mind' cognitive empathy skills as measured by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test 18 and the 'movie for the assessment of social cognition' (MASC) test 19 . ...
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... According to the current body of literature, impaired senses can lead to motor, spatial, and social challenges. Some individuals may also encounter synesthesia, where one sensory pathway triggers another [20,22]. Difficulties in processing sensory stimuli, such as colors, patterns, artificial lighting, smells, and temperatures, have been linked to increased susceptibility in environments for neurodivergent individuals. ...
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Our ability to have an experience of another's pain is characteristic of empathy. Using functional imaging, we assessed brain activity while volunteers experienced a painful stimulus and compared it to that elicited when they observed a signal indicating that their loved one—present in the same room—was receiving a similar pain stimulus. Bilateral anterior insula (AI), rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), brainstem, and cerebellum were activated when subjects received pain and also by a signal that a loved one experienced pain. AIand ACC activation correlated with individual empathy scores. Activity in the posterior insula/secondary somatosensory cortex, the sensorimotor cortex (SI/MI), and the caudal ACC was specific to receiving pain. Thus, a neural response in AIand rostral ACC, activated in common for “self” and “other” conditions, suggests that the neural substrate for empathic experience does not involve the entire “pain matrix.” We conclude that only that part of the pain network associated with its affective qualities, but not its sensory qualities, mediates empathy.
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Measuring empathy: Reliability and validity of the Empathy Quotient
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2004
Empathy plays a key role in social understanding, but its empirical measurement has proved difficult. The Empathy Quotient (EQ) is a self-report scale designed to do just that. This series of four studies examined the reliability and validity of the EQ and determined its factor structure. In Study 1, 53 people completed the EQ, Social Desirability Scale (SDS) and a non-verbal mental state inference test, the Eyes Task. In Study 2, a principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted on data from 110 healthy individuals and 62 people reporting depersonalisation (DPD). Approximately 1 year later, Study 3, involved the re-administration of the EQ (n = 24) along with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; n = 28). In the last study, the EQ scores of those with DPD, a condition that includes a subjective lack of empathy, were examined in depth. An association was found between the Eyes task and EQ, and only three EQ items correlated with the SDS. PCA revealed three factors: (1) 'cognitive empathy'; (2) 'emotional reactivity', and (3) 'social skills'. Test-retest reliability was good and moderate associations were found between the EQ and IRI subscales, suggesting concurrent validity. People with DPD did not show a global empathy deficit, but reported less social competence. The EQ is a valid, reliable scale and the different subscales may have clinical applications.
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A Touching Sight
Article
  • Apr 2004
  • NEURON
Watching the movie scene in which a tarantula crawls on James Bond's chest can make us literally shiver—as if the spider crawled on our own chest. What neural mechanisms are responsible for this “tactile empathy”? The observation of the actions of others activates the premotor cortex normally involved in the execution of the same actions. If a similar mechanism applies to the sight of touch, movies depicting touch should automatically activate the somatosensory cortex of the observer. Here we found using fMRI that the secondary but not the primary somatosensory cortex is activated both when the participants were touched and when they observed someone or something else getting touched by objects. The neural mechanisms enabling our own sensation of touch may therefore be a window also to our understanding of touch.
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SHORT COMMUNICATION Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: an fMRI study
Article
  • Jan 2001
resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to localize brain areas that were active during the observation of actions made by another individual. Object- and non-object-relat ed actions made with different effectors (mouth, hand and foot) were presented. Observation of both object- and non-object-relat ed actions determined a somatotopically organized activation of premotor cortex. The somatotopic pattern was similar to that of the classical motor cortex homunculus. During the observation of object-related actions, an activation, also somatotopically organized,
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Mirror Neurons and the Simulation Theory of Mind-Reading
Article
  • Dec 1998
  • TRENDS COGN SCI
A new class of visuomotor neuron has been recently discovered in the monkey's premotor cortex: mirror neurons. These neurons respond both when a particular action is performed by the recorded monkey and when the same action, performed by another individual, is observed. Mirror neurons appear to form a cortical system matching observation and execution of goal-related motor actions. Experimental evidence suggests that a similar matching system also exists in humans. What might be the functional role of this matching system? One possible function is to enable an organism to detect certain mental states of observed conspecifics. This function might be part of, or a precursor to, a more general mind-reading ability. Two different accounts of mind-reading have been suggested. According to `theory theory', mental states are represented as inferred posits of a naive theory. According to `simulation theory', other people's mental states are represented by adopting their perspective: by tracking or matching their states with resonant states of one's own. The activity of mirror neurons, and the fact that observers undergo motor facilitation in the same muscular groups as those utilized by target agents, are findings that accord well with simulation theory but would not be predicted by theory theory.
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Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L. & Rizzolatti, G. Action recognition in the premotor cortex. Brain 119, 593-609
Article
  • May 1996
We recorded electrical activity from 532 neurons in the rostral part of inferior area 6 (area F5) of two macaque monkeys. Previous data had shown that neurons of this area discharge during goal-directed hand and mouth movements. We describe here the properties of a newly discovered set of F5 neurons ("mirror neurons', n = 92) all of which became active both when the monkey performed a given action and when it observed a similar action performed by the experimenter. Mirror neurons, in order to be visually triggered, required an interaction between the agent of the action and the object of it. The sight of the agent alone or of the object alone (three-dimensional objects, food) were ineffective. Hand and the mouth were by far the most effective agents. The actions most represented among those activating mirror neurons were grasping, manipulating and placing. In most mirror neurons (92%) there was a clear relation between the visual action they responded to and the motor response they coded. In approximately 30% of mirror neurons the congruence was very strict and the effective observed and executed actions corresponded both in terms of general action (e.g. grasping) and in terms of the way in which that action was executed (e.g. precision grip). We conclude by proposing that mirror neurons form a system for matching observation and execution of motor actions. We discuss the possible role of this system in action recognition and, given the proposed homology between F5 and human Brocca's region, we posit that a matching system, similar to that of mirror neurons exists in humans and could be involved in recognition of actions as well as phonetic gestures.
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Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: an fMRI study
Article
  • Feb 2001
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to localize brain areas that were active during the observation of actions made by another individual. Object- and non-object-related actions made with different effectors (mouth, hand and foot) were presented. Observation of both object- and non-object-related actions determined a somatotopically organized activation of premotor cortex. The somatotopic pattern was similar to that of the classical motor cortex homunculus. During the observation of object-related actions, an activation, also somatotopically organized, was additionally found in the posterior parietal lobe. Thus, when individuals observe an action, an internal replica of that action is automatically generated in their premotor cortex. In the case of object-related actions, a further object-related analysis is performed in the parietal lobe, as if the subjects were indeed using those objects. These results bring the previous concept of an action observation/execution matching system (mirror system) into a broader perspective: this system is not restricted to the ventral premotor cortex, but involves several somatotopically organized motor circuits.
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Both of Us Disgusted in My Insula: The Common Neural Basis of Seeing and Feeling Disgust
Article
  • Nov 2003
  • NEURON
What neural mechanism underlies the capacity to understand the emotions of others? Does this mechanism involve brain areas normally involved in experiencing the same emotion? We performed an fMRI study in which participants inhaled odorants producing a strong feeling of disgust. The same participants observed video clips showing the emotional facial expression of disgust. Observing such faces and feeling disgust activated the same sites in the anterior insula and to a lesser extent in the anterior cingulate cortex. Thus, as observing hand actions activates the observer's motor representation of that action, observing an emotion activates the neural representation of that emotion. This finding provides a unifying mechanism for understanding the behaviors of others.
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A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch
Article
  • May 2004
  • NEURON
Watching the movie scene in which a tarantula crawls on James Bond's chest can make us literally shiver--as if the spider crawled on our own chest. What neural mechanisms are responsible for this "tactile empathy"? The observation of the actions of others activates the premotor cortex normally involved in the execution of the same actions. If a similar mechanism applies to the sight of touch, movies depicting touch should automatically activate the somatosensory cortex of the observer. Here we found using fMRI that the secondary but not the primary somatosensory cortex is activated both when the participants were touched and when they observed someone or something else getting touched by objects. The neural mechanisms enabling our own sensation of touch may therefore be a window also to our understanding of touch.
View