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

82
Chapter 4
months (Baron-Cohen et al., 2003). The scale is comprised of 40 test items and 20
filler items. All items are a series of statements (e.g. ‘I can tune into how someone
feels rapidly and intuitively) and responses are given on a 4 point scale ranging from
‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. Responses score 1 or 2 points for an empathic
response and 0 points for all other responses. Principal component analysis has
indicated that the EQ is comprised of three main factors (i) cognitive empathy, (ii)
emotional reactivity and (iii) social skills (Lawrence et al., 2004; Muncer and Ling,
2006). Confirmatory factor analysis has indicated that the EQ may be better
conceived as comprising of this three factor structure rather than a 40 item unifactorial
scale (Lawrence et al., 2004; Muncer and Ling, 2006).
Results and Discussion
The empathic ability of mirror-touch synaesthetes was compared with non-
synaesthetic control participants and controls that report other types of synaesthesia
but do not report mirror-touch synaesthesia. Results from non-synaesthetic controls
and synaesthetes lacking mirror touch did not differ and were therefore combined.
Empathy scores for each component of the EQ are summarised in Figure 4.1. Mirror-
touch synaesthetes showed significantly higher scores on the emotional reactivity
subscale of the EQ relative to controls [t(53) = 2.15, p = < .05]. This subscale is
thought to reflect affective components of empathy, and instinctive empathic
responses to others (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004; Lawrence et al., 2004).
There was also a non-significant trend for mirror-touch synaesthetes to outperform
control subjects on the cognitive empathy (i.e. mentalizing / perspective taking)
subscale [t(53) = 1.92, p = .061]. Scores on the social skills subscale did not approach
significance [t(53) = 1.22, p = .227]. Therefore, mirror-touch synaesthetes showed
heightened empathy on some, but not all aspects of empathy. This supports the notion