PhronesisWe formalize the neurofascial mechanism by which organisms read each other through touch. C-tactile (CT) afferents — unmyelinated fibers tuned to affective touch at approximately 3 cm/s — project to the posterior insula, the same cortical region implicated in interoception and empathic pain. We propose that empathy is fundamentally a simulation process: the insula uses its model of self-state to infer other-state.
The accuracy of this inference is bounded by interoceptive accuracy. We identify three empathy channels: cognitive (TPJ/DMN mentalizing), affective (insular resonance), and somatic (interfascial read). We show that sexual attunement depends on all three channels, with the somatic channel most primitive and most neglected. Performance anxiety, dissociation, and alexithymia are failure modes of this neurofascial system.
The displacement framework applies: the attuned nervous system reads its partner's displacement, mirrors it, and navigates toward mutual ground state.