Functional and structural brain differences associated with mirror-touch synaesthesia

被引:43
|
作者
Holle, Henning [1 ]
Banissy, Michael J. [2 ,3 ]
Ward, Jamie [4 ,5 ]
机构
[1] Univ Hull, Dept Psychol, Kingston Upon Hull HU6 7RX, N Humberside, England
[2] Univ London Goldsmiths Coll, Dept Psychol, London SE14 6NW, England
[3] UCL, Inst Cognit Neurosci, London, England
[4] Univ Sussex, Sch Psychol, Brighton BN1 9RH, E Sussex, England
[5] Univ Sussex, Sackler Ctr Consciousness Sci, Brighton BN1 9RH, E Sussex, England
关键词
Tactile perception; Somatosensory cortex; Consciousness; fMRI; VBM; HUMAN PARIETAL OPERCULUM; CYTOARCHITECTONIC AREAS; SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX; SOCIAL COGNITION; PERCEPTION; MOTOR; SELF; FACE; ACTIVATIONS; RECOGNITION;
D O I
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.07.073
中图分类号
Q189 [神经科学];
学科分类号
071006 ;
摘要
Observing touch is known to activate regions of the somatosensory cortex but the interpretation of this finding is controversial (e.g. does it reflect the simulated action of touching or the simulated reception of touch?). For most people, observing touch is not linked to reported experiences of feeling touch but in some people it is (mirrortouch synaesthetes). We conducted an fMRI study in which participants (mirror-touch synaesthetes, controls) watched movies of stimuli (face, dummy, object) being touched or approached. In addition we examined whether mirror touch synaesthesia is associated with local changes of grey and white matter volume in the brain using VBM (voxel-based morphometry). Both synaesthetes and controls activated the somatosensory system (primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, SI and SII) when viewing touch, and the same regions were activated (by a separate localiser) when feeling touch i.e. there is a mirror system for touch. However, when comparing the two groups, we found evidence that SII seems to play a particular important role in mirror-touch synaesthesia: in synaesthetes, but not in controls, posterior Sit was active for watching touch to a face (in addition to SI and posterior temporal lobe); activity in SR correlated with subjective intensity measures of mirror-touch synaesthesia (taken outside the scanner), and we observed an increase in grey matter volume within the SII of the synaesthetes' brains. In addition, the synaesthetes showed hypo-activity when watching touch to a dummy in posterior SII. We conclude that the secondary somatosensory cortex has a key role in this form of synaesthesia. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:1041 / 1050
页数:10
相关论文
共 50 条
  • [11] Toward a Unified Social Motor Cognition Theory of Understanding Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia
    Kuang, Shenbing
    FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 2016, 10
  • [12] The Lived Experience of Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia A Qualitative Investigation of Empathy and Social Life
    Martin, Dania
    Cleghorn, Elinor
    Ward, Jamie
    JOURNAL OF CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES, 2017, 24 (1-2) : 214 - 227
  • [13] What can mirror-touch synaesthesia tell us about the sense of agency?
    Cioffi, Maria Cristina
    Moore, James W.
    Banissy, Michael J.
    FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 2014, 8
  • [14] Mirror-touch synaesthesia: A case of faulty self-modelling and insula abnormality
    Banissy, Michael J.
    Walsh, Vincent Z.
    Muggleton, Neil G.
    COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, 2011, 2 (02) : 114 - 115
  • [15] The relationship between mirror-touch synaesthesia and empathy: New evidence and a new screening tool
    Ward, Jamie
    Schnakenberg, Patricia
    Banissy, Michael J.
    COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 2018, 35 (5-6) : 314 - 332
  • [16] Explaining mirror-touch synesthesia
    Ward, Jamie
    Banissy, Michael J.
    COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, 2015, 6 (2-3) : 118 - 133
  • [17] Mirror Neurons and Mirror-Touch Synesthesia
    Linkovski, Omer
    Katzin, Naama
    Salti, Moti
    NEUROSCIENTIST, 2017, 23 (02): : 103 - 108
  • [18] Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy
    Michael J Banissy
    Jamie Ward
    Nature Neuroscience, 2007, 10 : 815 - 816
  • [19] Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy
    Banissy, Michael J.
    Ward, Jamie
    NATURE NEUROSCIENCE, 2007, 10 (07) : 815 - 816
  • [20] The no-touch rubber hand paradigm and mirror-touch sensation: Support for the self-other theory of mirror-touch synesthesia
    White, Rebekah C.
    Davies, Anne M. Aimola
    COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, 2015, 6 (2-3) : 146 - 147