Further Possible Physiological Connectedness Between Identical Twins: The London Study

Four pairs of monozygotic twins were tested for synchronous responses that occurred in the physiological data of one twin during the period when the other twin was exposed to shock and surprise stimuli. Each of the five stimuli was presented in random order, producing five blocks of trial periods within each 25-minute session per twin. There were eight possible trial periods within each block. The choice of the trial periods, that is, the exact time placement of the shock stimuli within the blocks, was determined randomly. Data from six sessions with the four pairs of twins were used by the same polygraph expert who was successful in a previous study in identifying these trial periods. In accordance with the previously determined protocol for the experiment, six of these trials were passed on, leaving 24 trial blocks for which assessments were made as to which period the stimulus had occurred. Six of these gave hits, whereas three hits were expected by chance and four of these six correct placements were made by one of the pairs of twins. The data provide further justification for a major study in this area using the outlined methodology with selected pairs of twins.