From mirror-touch synesthesia to models of vicarious experience: A reply to commentaries

Abstract

In this reply to the eight commentaries to our article, we discuss three important challenges. First, we discuss the relationship of mirror-touch to other forms of synesthesia. We note that synesthetic experiences are generally not mistaken as veridical but this does not mean that they lack percept-like qualities. We acknowledge that neither Threshold Theory nor Self-Other Theory offer a direct account of other forms of synesthesia, although we discuss how the latter could. Second, we discuss alternative explanations. Notably predictive coding offers a different way of framing our current theory, and extending it to related phenomena. Finally, we discuss how mirror-touch synesthesia may relate to other atypical experiences of body ownership such as the rubber hand illusion, and somatoparaphrenia.

Keywords: Mirror systems; pain; predictive coding; self-other; synesthesia; touch.