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

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Chapter 4
controls (mean age ± s.e.m = 35.69 ± 3.45 years) were compared. All cases of mirror-
touch synaesthesia were confirmed on the visual-tactile spatial congruity paradigm
designed to provide evidence for the authenticity of the condition (cf. Banissy and
Ward, 2007; Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 this thesis). Of the sixteen synaesthetes, five
took part in experiment 1.
For analysis of the relationship between empathy and personality, an
additional 88 non-synaesthete control subjects were recruited. These controls were
combined with mirror-touch synaesthetes and non-synaesthete controls from the first
part of the study to provide a sample of 120 subjects (mean age ± s.e.m = 27.98 ± 2.78
years). The additional controls were included to provide a range of scores on the
empathy and personality measures, with mirror-touch synaesthetes thought to reflect
the top end of a spectrum on empathy scores.
Materials and procedure
All subjects completed the EQ, IRI, and BFI.
The EQ is a self report measure designed to empirically measure empathy and
is described in experiment 1 of this chapter (pp. 78-79).
The IRI is a 28 item self-report empathy measure (Davis, 1980). It is
comprised of four subscales; perspective taking, fantasizing, empathic concern and
personal distress. Each subscale contains seven items which are measured on a five
point Likert scale ranging from 0 (“Does not describe me well”) to 4 (“Describes me
very well”). For each subscale, a minimum score of 0 or maximum score of 35 is
possible. For the perspective taking, fantasizing and empathic concern subscales
higher scores reflect heightened empathy. For the personal distress subscale higher
scores are reflective of self-orientated emotional reactivity (Davis, 1994).