Study: People Literally Feel Pain of Others

stevenmu

I read this article today on live science

Study: People Literally Feel Pain of Others

In short they've found that some people (termed "synesthetes") can literally feel exactly what other people feel. They've tracked the cause of this to a group of cells in the brain which are known as mirror neurons (see Scientists Say Everyone Can Read Minds, also worth reading). Essentially these cells fire in the same way whether you are performing an action, or experiencing an emotion, as they do when you observe that action or emotion in another. As an example my mirror neurons may fire in a particular way if I burn my hand on an oven, they would also burn the exact same way if I see someone else burn their hand on an oven, allowing me to feel what they feel.

These cells seem to be more abundant, or at least more active in some people than others, making some people more "empathic" than others (and one theory being tested for e.g. is that these cells are missing/inactive in people suffering autism).

Unfortunatly they don't mention if they have tested what levels of observation from one person to another were required to trigger the mirror neurons, or more specifically if they could be triggered without direct observation. I thought though the potential implications were interesting enough to bring up here. What do people think ?

WindSock

Is that what Sympathy pains are?

stormkeeper

That's one reason why I tend to keep away from large groups of people people... I imagine I pick up all the emotional energy (not feeling it though usually), then tend to get exhausted after being around them for more than a couple hours, then I just want to sleep to recharge my batteries...

I do have a tendancy to be able to pick up people's emotions from a distance, and when people get embarressed, I tend to feel the same embarressment because I pick it up off them. Empathy is a pain at times

Zillah

Interesting study, but I fail to see what it has to do with the paranormal. The article quite clearly says:

"The condition, known as mirror-touch synesthesia, is related to the activity of mirror neurons, cells recently discovered to fire not only when some animals perform some behavior, such as climbing a tree, but also when they watch another animal do the behavior."

and

"It is extraordinary to think that some people experience touch on their own body when they merely watch someone else being stroked or punched."

It doesn't even nearly imply that this is anything about supernatural senses. You see someone hurt themselves, your brain recreates the sensation within your own brain.

Actually, the more I think about this, the more it seems like a natural explanation for events people often think are paranormal: This proves that the brain can internally create the sensation of being touched. When people on ghost hunts say they feel a hand touch them or hit them, its quite possible its such mirror cells mis-firing.

SkepticOne

Zillah wrote:

Interesting study, but I fail to see what it has to do with the paranormal. The article quite clearly says:

"The condition, known as mirror-touch synesthesia, is related to the activity of mirror neurons, cells recently discovered to fire not only when some animals perform some behavior, such as climbing a tree, but also when they watch another animal do the behavior."

Yes, if the article was claiming that people picked up other's pain when completely cut off from them physically then this would be considered a paranormal claim.

tj-music.com

I live over 2000 kilometres away from both my 4year old nephew and my 76 years old father - yet, very often I either have a sensation of pain or low energy and subsequently one of the two of them isn't that well.

Is that sensitivity or something paranormal??

Zillah

How often do you feel pain or loss of energy and its not one of them? I bet often.

solas

when my father was ill with cancer (renal) I was hospitalised for a week when my kidneys stopped working. I was never given a diagnosis.