A woman – known only as atomic number 43 – fit into uncontrollable laughter when she watch someone being tickled . And no , she is not laugh at them as they twist around in discomfort but because she has an strange experimental condition called mirror - tinge synaesthesia .
This means she can watch a someone being meet ( or tickled ) and feel the precise same wizard on her own body . In this case , shemight not be the one being tickle but she feel as though she is .
Researchers from the University of California , San Diego , conducted a series of experiments on TC to search this freakish phenomenon further – for example , watching her reaction to seeing other Volunteer touch unlike surface , douse their bridge player in deoxyephedrine cold water , and be tickled . To verify her response to the tickling was a genuine example of mirror - touch synaesthesia and not because she found the situation funny , the team also tested her reactions to jokes and odd video clips . The results have been write in the journalNeurocase .
When TC watched other people being tickled , she oppose as if she was experiencing it at first hand . That is with vivid laugh . She even attempted to neutralize the sensation by rubbing her own armpit . The researchers point out her reaction was not as utmost or as frequent when she was render the telecasting magazine or told a joke .
The reaction to 2d - hand tickling was even more acute when the voluntary was someone she bed well or who look like her – or when she could see their facial expressions . The most acute responses pass when she watched a video clip of herself being titillate .
It was n’t just tickle , however . technetium describe wizard of touching velvet , thicket , silk , and table aerofoil just from control someone else concern different surfaces . When she saw a volunteer plunge their hand in glacial body of water , she sensed the wetness but not the temperature .
So , what is going on here ?
It comes down to a grouping of cell in the brain shout mirror neuron . These are activated whenever we or someone we see is being touched . But , for most of us , signals from other parts of the brain " block " the response when it is someone other than ourselves , help us discriminate the " self " from other people . For people like technetium with mirror - touch synesthesia , however , these signals are weaker . Hence , they feel others ' sensations as if they were their own .
The researchers believe this could help us infer how empathy works . As Claudia Sellers , one of the researchers need in the study , toldNew Scientist , “ We all posture on a spectrum of empathy , ” – TC ’s story is just an extreme illustration .
