What It’s Like to Have Mirror Touch Synesthesia

By

Dr. Joel Salinas is a neurologist who possesses a rare neurological trait himself: he has mirror-touch synesthesia, a rare form of the perceptual condition that allows him to experience the same physical sensations and feelings as the people around him.

He’s a doctor who can quite literally feel your pain.

Salinas, who also experiences other forms of synesthesia (such as seeing numbers as colors and tasting shapes in foods), recently wrote a book about life as a synesthete: Mirror Touch: A Memoir of Synesthesia and the Secret Life of the Brain. In this video, he shares how mirror touch has colored his personal life and opened up a profound sense of empathy for those around him.

Watch Now

  1. How to Make the Most of the Holidays This Year
  2. Weruche Opia Wants Everyone’s Story Told
  3. Your Favorite Auntie is Here to Help
  4. Finding Style Inspiration in the Everyday
  5. Love in the Time of Quarantine
  6. What We Know About COVID-19 and Pregnancy
  7. How Three Pregnant Women Are Responding to COVID-19
  8. Advice from Italian Parents on Lockdown
  9. How West Side Story’s Shereen Pimentel Gets It Done
  10. Inside Athena Calderone’s Elegant Brooklyn Brownstone
  11. How Comedian Jo Firestone Gets It Done
  12. Inside Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Long Island Art Studio
  13. How New Yorker Illustrator Liana Finck Gets It Done
  14. Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan Reveal Their Whimsical Greenwich Village Home
  15. Inside Kelly Behun’s Mesmerizing Apartment in the Clouds
  16. Inside One of the Last Bohemian Homes in Hotel Chelsea
  17. How Iliza Shlesinger Gets It Done
  18. How Hadestown’s Eva Noblezada Gets It Done
  19. 4 Women at the Top of Their Fields on How They Get It Done
  20. How The Daily Show’s Dulcé Sloan Gets It Done
What It’s Like to Have Mirror Touch Synesthesia