Are there others who experience this? Surely it must be common. I just came accross sight - touch synesthesia or mirror synesthesia after my daughter looked it up today. I thought everybody felt what they see but then my daughter who also experiences it said 'no'.

If I see somebody getting their hair brushed - I feel it. Everything I see - I have a physical sensation that goes with it. If I see someone walking - I feel the physical sensation of walking. If I see leaves moving - I feel the physical sensation. If I watch you have a massage - I'm going to feel as relaxed and wonderful as you do. When I look at a wall, I also experience the tactile sensation of the wall. Everything sight has a touch component. I don't just see a movie - I 'feel' the movie. I don't skateboard but if I see someone on a skateboard - I experience the physical sensation of being on a skateboard. If I see you move - I feel your movements.

It can be stronger or more like a shadow but it is always there - I can't imagine sight without it. It never occured to me that this is not the case for everybody - I have never questioned it. Now I wonder if I do have a synesthesia. There is no sight without an experience of touch. Can't imagine what it would be like to have them separate.

Please let me know if you experience this. Just seems so ordinary.

Welcome to the Nexus, Seefeel!

I don't experience what you're describing, so I'm fairly sure it's not something everyone has. As to whether or not it's syn, this is one of the difficult cases, and has been discussed briefly . It is a sense-sense connection, so in that capacity does seem like synesthesia, but it's unusual because one of the characteristics of syn is that the response is otherwise unrelated to the stimulus. So, for example, thinking of red as hot and blue as cold is not generally thought of as synesthetic since that's a cultural norm - chances are the association was learned non-sysnesthetically. If you see someone having their hair brushed or walking and feel those actual sensations, it seems as though the arbitrariness normally associated with syn isn't there. Of course, if the response is projected (actually felt), then it's less likely that it was learned. So, the short version: I'm not sure.

What you feel when you look at a wall or leaves moving might be more promising - can you try to describe what you feel when you look at these things? Do you mean that you feel what you would feel if you were touching the wall, or is it something else?

Welcome to the forum!

I agree with Fogwolf - that sounds like it could be syn, but it's a slightly trickier case than most. I remember reading an article about mirror-touch that classified it as a form of synaesthesia, though (the article can be found ).

I can, rarely, sense some vague (and associated) sight-touch responses, but I don't think that they count as synaesthetic, since they're so weak and it doesn't seem to be consistent (i.e. it doesn't happen all the time, only occasionally). However, if you can physically feel things you see, it sounds to me like that could be projected syn.

Lisko and Fogwolf have said what I was going to. I'm not quite sure about it, since I don't experience it myself.

I get something like this, but it is associated and I don't always feel it, but rather the absence of it. E.g. seeing someone brushing their hair, my scalp can feel horrible because of the absence of a brush on it. Does that make sense. I can feel what I see sometimes. I'll search for a thread I started a while ago and I'll post a link to it for you.

I also don't feel everything.

What I do feel can, I think, react with my Tourette's (remind me and I'll post a link to the video I made about this once I've uploaded it).

This article might provide some answers:
http://www.livescience.com/health/07061 ... faces.html
Alternatively, search on Google for 'mirror neurons synesthesia'.

I managed to upload it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_2uhGBsn0I

It kind of makes me think of my proximity reactions (I'm not sure if they're syn or not, though).
If someone is close enough, I can feel the movement they make.
Or, like when I'm driving, and someone is tailgating me, I can kind of sense them being too close.

Is that similar at all?

Some of it depends on who you ask. I'm pretty sure Cytowic doesn't feel this should be classified as synesthesia, but other prominent researchers have concluded that there are enough potential similarities in terms of what is actually going on in the brain to group it under the synesthesia umbrella.

If I see somebody getting their hair brushed - I feel it. Everything I see - I have a physical sensation that goes with it.
Hmm that's quite difficult.
I think I know what you're referring to but I don't think I experience it in the way you do. I experience this with sound and movement. I.e. If a sound is travelling toward me from behind, I can 'feel' it approach me (maybe that because I can see it approach me?) and therefore know where it's coming from (that's the same with movements). This makes me very conscious and frightful of sudden loud noises and moving objects (much to the sheer joy of my engineering lab partners who make sudden movements and loud emphatic noises in my peripheral vision just to see me jump! ).

It's hard to say because an action like feeling someone's hair being brushed could be the result of empathy (like being able to feel someone's pain), same with being able to feel the wall or being able to feel someone's movements although you do mention something about 'feeling' a movie...that bit sounds intriguing.

If I see somebody getting their hair brushed - I feel it. Everything I see - I have a physical sensation that goes with it. If I see someone walking - I feel the physical sensation of walking.

I've had this all my life - very strongly in fact. It feel like it's some sort of radar field around me constantly touching things around me. I look at two blankets and I can tell you which one feels softer. One side effect of it is that when I was in the army I could spot camoflage by sight, even when it looked natural it just felt "off" to me. Never realised that other people couldn't touch what they can see. It's as normal for me as if I run my fingers over the item.

Watching TV I can feel what the actors are doing... sometimes more clearly that others but always to some extent. Since getting a large screen TV I've found the experience has intensified too.

I did feel like I was weird over one thing though... When I go through a car wash it triggers an endorphin rush as I'm sensing all the brushes moving around me. It's like It's me having a massage and I feel really relaxed afterwards. I never could think of a reason why it happens because it's not like I have a fetish for car washes heh. Now I now that it's this neurological link between my sight and touch I don't feel like a wierdo anymore.

I wouldn't have known about it until I stumbled upon an article on the internet about it. Then I put in a search for sight/touch synesthesia and found this site.

Oh yeah - one thing that it has over the years is helped me learn. When I was taking swimming lessons I was having problems. Then one day there was this swimming lesson being show on TV and I just watched and then turned around to my mom and said "I can swim now". She humoured me but then when we got to the swimming pool the next time I straight away swam a length of the pool. All because I could feel what the swimmer on TV was doing like it was me that was doing the swimming. The only thing that it couldn't do was build up my muscles that the swimmer had and I ended up regretting it with a very stiff body next day.

Welcome to the Nexus, NeoMorph!

It is not entirely clear if mirror-touch can be classified as synaesthesia, since the connections between stimuli and responses are usually totally arbitrary in syn (such as, when seeing a blanket you'd feel the physical sensation of touching granite, for example). On the other hand, it sounds like a neurological thing, and similar to syn in many ways. But syn or not, it sure is very interesting... When I look at an object, I can imagine what it feels like - but I can't actually feel it, and it's not automatic. It would be cool to experience what you're describing.

When I was taking swimming lessons I was having problems. Then one day there was this swimming lesson being show on TV and I just watched and then turned around to my mom and said "I can swim now". She humoured me but then when we got to the swimming pool the next time I straight away swam a length of the pool. All because I could feel what the swimmer on TV was doing like it was me that was doing the swimming.
Oh, how I wish I could do that... I can swim maybe 10-20 meters (30-60 ft.), and then I sink like a rock.

Welcome to the Nexus, NeoMorph!

It is not entirely clear if mirror-touch can be classified as synaesthesia, since the connections between stimuli and responses are usually totally arbitrary in syn (such as, when seeing a blanket you'd feel the physical sensation of touching granite, for example). On the other hand, it sounds like a neurological thing, and similar to syn in many ways. But syn or not, it sure is very interesting... When I look at an object, I can imagine what it feels like - but I can't actually feel it, and it's not automatic. It would be cool to experience what you're describing.


Actually when I look at things I don't get the arbitrary feelings. If I see a blanket I feel a blanket. The link is pretty much spot on. The list of all the synesthesia types can be found here -> http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/html/types.htm.

It's definitely a link as I can run my hands over things remotely and even feel the correct feelings when I actually touch them. At first I thought it was because I had already touched them and my memory had stored the feelings away and was replaying them and touch memories. Then when I found out about synesthesia I went out of my way to find items outside that I've not already touched. When I compared them to what my syn touch felt to how my hand touch felt I was 100% spot on and I have no idea why. From what I understood from the literature the syn connection is a link in the brain between two sections that normally wouldn't interact. Is my brain guessing the right texture and passing the information direct to my touch senses? I would have thought there would be some errors if that was the case but everything I've tested so far has been spot on. The only thing it did get wrong was the temperature but the texture I felt was 100% correct.

There were even instances where I thought my syn HAD to be wrong... for instance this one car made me feel a gritty texture to its paint when I was over twenty feet away. As most cars are smooth I thought the syn had linked incorrectly but when I finally touched the car it turned out to have a rough paint coating even though it looked smooth from a distance. Totally blew my mind at that point.

I'm 47 at present and all through my life I've treated this syn experience as normal. It's just something I've taken for granted since I was a child. It's only because I stumbled onto a site that talked about it that I even knew synesthesia existed. I always just thought it was just good imagination but the after the test I did with items I hadn't touched came up positive I realised what I have really IS synesthesia.

Edit: That mentioning about me having it as a child reminded me of something. When I was upset as a child I used to run my virtual hands over various things and it calmed me down. Whenever I did that it looked like I was daydreaming and I used to get told off for it at primary school... When I got older I didn't do it as much but I remember this big old tree I used to feel myself climbing when I was about 8 years old. It was right outside the classroom window and boy did I get told off for looking at it. It's quite strange because the imprint is still there 39 years later and I can still feel the tree as if I was touching it now. That's another side effect. I tend to record the feelings which was why I though that it was just touch memory playback.

Actually when I look at things I don't get the arbitrary feelings. If I see a blanket I feel a blanket. The link is pretty much spot on.
That's exactly what I meant, actually. What you described didn't (and doesn't) sound like arbitrary connections between sight and touch - however one of the criteria sometimes mentioned for syn is that the responses ought to be unrelated. My guess is that this is in part to rule out cases of normal, non-synaesthetic association. And in most types of syn, the responses clearly are arbitrary (there's no particular reason why the colour pink should taste like broccoli, for example).

I've been under the impression that there isn't a clear consensus on whether mirror-touch should be classified as syn or not, because I've hardly ever seen it mentioned in any syn-related articles or resources. I've just assumed that there hasn't been enough of research data to classify it as either a syntype or as a different kind of neurological phenomenon. I did a quick google search after your post, though, and found several recent articles about it. I didn't have time to read them all - I just took a quick look at one - but it seems indeed to be recognized as a type of syn. (I'll read the rest when I get home - I'm curious to find out more about it.)

I was going to say in any case that I don't see why we couldn't discuss mirror-touch here, regardless of whether it's syn, since several of our members have it and it seems to be (at the very least) a phenomenon closely related to syn. But looks like that addition won't be really needed now.

For everyone who's interested, here are some links that I came across:





It seems that the condition was only discovered a few years ago (in 2005), which would explain why there's so little info available about it.

Well I'll be mogadorned lol.

I knew it was a type of syn but now it's called mirror-touch synesthesia.

The one thing that is spot on with the I-feel-for-you link is that I've known I was empathic for years. People would say one thing yet feel another and I would get that. I thought that was also subconcious clues I was picking up about the person. Mind you I'm a typical piscean... over emotional heh.

Thanks for those links btw.

Then one day there was this swimming lesson being show on TV and I just watched and then turned around to my mom and said "I can swim now". She humoured me but then when we got to the swimming pool the next time I straight away swam a length of the pool.
Wow, you're like

Hi ya.

I have vision-touch syn. Ive been taking part in experiments in the university of london relating to vision-touch syn. In one experiment I had to watch someones foot being rubed with a cotton bud and being injected with different sized syringes. I could feel the cotton swads but I have what as known as trypanophobia (dont like syringes) and each time i saw the syringe clips, i got a smell sensation rather than a touch. was like my senses would not allow me to focus on the syringe. was pretty trippy.

If you want to find out more about vision touch you should contact Dr Jamie Ward at the university of sussex. He is conducting experiments in to vision-touch at the moment and wouls be delighted to hear from people with vision-touch.

I think what people are talking about here is mirror touch synesthesia. I've just finished reading 'The Frog that Croaked Blue' by Jamie Ward. In it he mentions that as well as mirror touch, there may also be mirror taste and mirror smell synesthesia. He gives an example of a synesthete who has mirror taste synesthesia. What she describes is very similar to something that happens to me. Has anyone else read the book? If so does anyone else have this?

I have mirror-taste but i thought that was an obvious reaction to vision-touch

I don't quite get how Miror taste could be a reaction to Vision touch. I think I've read they're seperate types any way.

It's probably not a reaction to vision-touch (i.e. mirror-touch) per se, but rather a similar type - vision-taste (i.e. mirror-taste) - that is also triggered in a similar way. I think?

To Lisko. Yes you're probably right about that. Also to cannelogo, yes! You watch Heroes? Me too, I love it!