Event overview
Goldsmiths Psychology Department Seminar Series
Abstract
Our capacity to share the experiences of others is a critical part of social behaviour. One process thought to be important for this is vicarious perception - the ability to co-represent the experiences of other people by matching the observed state onto representations of our own first-hand experience. For example, observing pain in other people activates some of the same network of brain regions as the first-hand experience of pain. For most of us vicarious perception is implicit (i.e. unconscious), but for some individuals viewing another person’s state results in them literally experiencing a conscious sensation of the observed event. In this talk I will discuss a series of studies examining the prevalence, characteristics and mechanisms that contribute to conscious vicarious perception. I will discuss work that we have conducted on mirror-touch and mirror-pain synaesthesia: rare experiences where seeing somebody else being touched or in pain evokes first-hand sensations on the observer’s own body. I will argue that conscious vicarious perception in mirror-touch / mirror-pain synaesthesia is related to disturbances in the ability to distinguish the self from others, and consider the implications of this for our understanding of the role that mechanisms of self-other representation play in our ability to understand the experiences of others.
Biography
Michael is a Professor in Psychology based in the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths (University of London), where he is Director of Research. Prior to taking up his position at Goldsmiths he worked at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (University College London) on personal Research Fellowships awarded by the British Academy and the ESRC. He also completed his PhD in Psychology at UCL.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 23 Nov 2017 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
Accessibility
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