The Neuropsychology of Synaesthesia


	The Neuropsychology of Synaesthesia

Djiezes

9-5-2007 10:21 AM

704 views

tags:

science, neuroscience, psychology, synaesthesia, brain, galton, color, music, touch, empathy

3 Comments |

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9-5-2007 8:30 PM

gsarnoldjr

very cool

9-7-2007 11:24 PM

neochonetes

Thanks. I have read all Feynman's books, but I had forgotten about Feynman talking about how he visualized equation imagery.

9-8-2007 5:28 AM

abailart

Good article, good site. Thanks.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/aa5e05b6-c7ba-4e07-90be-d334eb4dd061/9DBF3565-A005-447B-BD7F-1CD9DD63AE86/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php" href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php" style="font-size: 11px;">scienceblogs.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php"><H2><A href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php" id="a052709">The neuropsychology of synaesthesia</A></H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/scienceblogs.com/img/2BB98029-470D-46F6-9C11-CD5154F03F23" alt="544px-DTI-sagittal-fibers_small.jpg" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php"><P><FONT face="Georgia">In the 1880s, Francis Galton</FONT><FONT face="Georgia"> described a condition in which "persons...almost invariably think of numerals in visual imagery." This "peculiar habit of mind" is today called <A href="http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/R_H-follow-up.pdf">synaesthesia</A>, and Galton's description clearly defines this condition as one in which stimuli of one sensory modality elicit sensations in another of the senses.</FONT>
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php">There are several different kinds of synaesthesia</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php"><FONT face="Georgia">The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who </FONT><FONT face="Georgia">reported seeing equations in colour,</FONT><FONT face="Georgia"> was a grapheme-colour synaesthete, while the expressionist artist <A href="http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/can-you-hear-this-painting/">Wassily Kandinsky</A>, in whom musical tones elicited specific colours, </FONT><FONT face="Georgia">was a tone-colour synaesthete</FONT><FONT face="Georgia">.</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php">There are a number of theories which seek to explain synaesthesia in terms of neurobiological mechanisms.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php"><B>Mirror-touch synaesthesia</B></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php"><FONT face="Georgia">People with this type of synaesthesia experience</FONT><FONT face="Georgia"> tactile sensations when they observe another person being touched.</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/the_neuropsychology_of_synaest.php">mirror-touch synaesthetes are more empathetic than non-synaesthetes.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/9DBF3565-A005-447B-BD7F-1CD9DD63AE86/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>