Mirror-touch synaesthesia: the role of shared ... - UCL Discovery

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Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 The ‘What, Who, Where Model of Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia’. ‘What’
mechanisms are shown in red boxes and are involved in defining the stimulus
touched. ‘Who’ mechanisms implement discriminations between self and other, and
are shown in blue boxes. ‘Where’ mechanisms are shown in green boxes and are
involved in locating where on the body and in space observed touch occurs.
Processes necessary for all subjects are shown with black arrows, necessary for
specular mirror-touch synaesthetes with orange arrows, and for anatomical mirrortouch
synaesthetes with purple arrows. Brain regions represented are considered with
regard to importance for mirror-touch synaesthesia. AI = Anterior Insula; EBA =
Extrastriate Body Area; FBA = Fusiform Body Area; FFA = Fusiform face area; IFG
= Inferior Frontal Gyrus; IPL = Inferior Parietal Lobule; IPS = Intraparietal Sulcus;
LO = Lateral Occipital Cortex; SI = Primary Somatosensory Cortex; SII = Secondary
Somatosensory Cortex; STS = Superior Temporal Sulcus; TPJ = Temporoparietal
Junction.
9.4 Does the presence of synaesthesia have implications for perceptual
processing?
Chapter 3 investigated whether the presence of synaesthesia has implications
for perceptual processing. Previous ERP findings indicated that the presence of
synaesthesia may exert a wider influence over sensory processing and impact on the
veridical sensory processing of synaesthetes (Barnett et al., 2008; Goller, Otten, and
Ward, 2009). For example, Barnett and colleagues (2008) report that, compared to