Medical Synesthesia, some people perceive individual symbols, characters, numbers

[rhody]

Brilliant Rhody. I'm going get some popcorn and watch Cytowic's lectures this evening.

Just a quick question. Do the red areas indicate activity or inactivity in the brain?

Thats funny you say that because I said something similar, "I will sit here with my popcorn" in my thread, https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=389372" awhile back. I think the red areas are the activity response from the stimulus given.

Rhody...

 

[waht]

Thats funny you say that because I said something similar, "I will sit here with my popcorn" in my thread, https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=389372" awhile back.

Lol, I thought I'd get away. Actually I've watched a youtube engineering vblog couple of days ago, and someone commented

I'm going to grab a beer and some popcorn and enjoy my next hour of engineering bliss

that's how I remembered it. Although I think the youtube comment actually reinforced the latent memory of your comment and pushed it up the stack in the list of cool comments to use.

 

[zoobyshoe]

As you state he may have had a background in medical diagnosis, but in his lifetime he made over 30,000 readings all now available to the public in a library in Virginia Beach. Whatever skill he did have seemed to me at least, was beyond chance, and educated guessing.

I wouldn't be impressed unless there are 30,000 confirmatory letters from verifiable medical doctors on file with the readings. In most cases like this the impressive stories that get repeated over and over have simply been cherry picked from the 'hits', and the misses are swept under the carpet.

 

[rhody]

http://www.youtube.com/user/Cytowic#p/a/f/0/ex8UYOJtddA"

This talk, by Dr Cytowic, one hour with about 10 or so minutes with a question and answer period is very good, even better than the four eight minute segments I posted a few posts ago.

Interesting notes from the talk:

1. 1989 color area of the brain discovered.​

2. 150 different couplings of synesthesia cataloged so far.​

3. Research in 15 countries is being done, serious science papers are being published.​

4. Synesthesia is almost always directional, there are rare bidirectional synesthestes and they find themselves obevwhelmed by the barrage of sensation and tend to live voluntarily quiet, sequestered lives.​

5. 1 in 23 have some kind of synesthesia, most common is sensing the days of the week as a color.​

6. 1 in 90 have lexical (letters induce color).​

7. sounds stimulate taste, childhood foodnames act as templates for taste.​

8. Richard Feynman had number form of it (number sense in spatial coordinates around one's body. He once said to his students, "I talk about equations with tan j's and violet x's flying about, and I wonder what the hell it looks like to students !".​

9. 1 in 10 have the number form of synesthesia. Can have number form without synesthesia, if you have synesthesia you have a 60% chance of having the number form.​

10. Research has found a new brain area, over learned sequence area (number associated with colors).​

11. Very first cognitive tree in which science can map its gene for a single nucleotide mutation can alter how ones perceives the world. (Cytowic's comment: Sublime !).​

12. Synesthesia exists not in a area or group of areas in the brain but is spread out over many structures.​

13. Has to do with excitation and inhibition of existing pathways in the brain, increased simultaneous excitation in pathways is the cause. When the excitation is "calmed" the synesthesia effect is not present.​

14. Test yourself for the various forms here: http://www.synesthete.org/" , They have analyzed over 7000 people so far with this test.​

15. Conclusion: crosstalk among the senses is "normal".​

16. Marilyn Monroe, had synesthesia, Normal Mailers bio of her, "she has a displacement of the senses that others take drugs to find".​

17. Cytowic says that synesthesia is: "a peephole that opens a broad new window on the mind".​

18. During the question and answer session, one mother stood up to tell Dr Cytowic of a disadvantage of having it, her child, who has it, was made ill (I assume from taste) when he heard the teacher speak in class, and had to be placed in another one to keep from getting sick.​

Rhody...

 

[rhody]

All I will say right now is that my older daughter is a very gifted artist. Her teachers have said that "art is her life". She exhibted unusual understanding of shapes as early as 18 months, and drew pictures of people "thinking". For example a stick picture of a man with his legs in the air, $ signs in his eyes, and a pile of coins at the bottom. When I asked her what this picture was about, she said "He's jumping for joy because he's rich". Eighteen months old. She scared me.

Evo,

After reading what has been presented here so far, has your mind been put somewhat at ease ? I hope so.

Rhody...

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I also have letter-color synaesthesia. The colors are typically very specific shades, and sometimes they seem to have other qualities such as shininess or translucence. Someone earlier mentioned that A tends to be red, B blue, and C yellow. However, for me, A is a reddish orange, B is light blue, C is pale yellow. E is bright, cherry red.

 

[zoobyshoe]

5. 1 in 23 have it, most common is sensing the days of the week as a color.​

9. 1 in 10 have the number form of synesthesia.​

Seems like these two contradict each other. Also, in the Hirshhorn videos he said 1 in 200 have some form of it.

So, I'm pretty confused about the statistics.

 

[rhody]

Seems like these two contradict each other. Also, in the Hirshhorn videos he said 1 in 200 have some form of it.

So, I'm pretty confused about the statistics.

zooby,

After a second look, at 7:15 in his presentation, Cytowic states, about 1 in 23 people have some form of synesthesia, and that the most common kind is sensing days of the week as color. At 12:00 he says, about 1 in 10 people have the number form without synesthesia, and you have synesthesia you have about a 60% chance of having a number form. I am a bit confused as well, because about a minute before he was introducing the number form describing it with a visual, further qualifying it as spatial sequence synesthesia, because what numbers, calendars, shoe sizes, temperatures, etc... are is that they are all over learned sequences. Listen to these two segments carefully and see if your interpretation is what I reported above.
I look at it this way, the section from 11 to 12 minutes is complex, linked and detailed, maybe critical focus was lost and he did not fully clarify what he intended to say.

I have amended the list on the previous post to reflect the stats for 1 in 23 and 1 in 10 to my best understanding.

Rhody...

 

[rhody]

I also have letter-color synaesthesia. The colors are typically very specific shades, and sometimes they seem to have other qualities such as shininess or translucence. Someone earlier mentioned that A tends to be red, B blue, and C yellow. However, for me, A is a reddish orange, B is light blue, C is pale yellow. E is bright, cherry red.

Ben,

Interesting, Cytowic reports that people with color synesthesia have a greater sensitivity to color. Even after taking the test (in link above) twice a year apart from one another report very similar color matches than those (non synesthetes) who took the same test(s) a year apart. The people that did not have synesthesia were all over the map in their color choices, whereas the people with synesthesia reported colors very close to their original results in the first test. This reinforces the belief that the sensation remains relatively constant throughout one's life, and that people who report to have it (and don't) can be easily identified as imposters from the test results.

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

I look at it this way, the section from 11 to 12 minutes is complex, linked and detailed, maybe critical focus was lost and he did not fully clarify what he intended to say.

This is probably it. Thanks for checking into that for me, I haven't watched this one yet.

 

[rhody]

http://www.1watchmovie.com/the-real-superhumans-discovery-channel/"

Amazing video including a woman synestheste who has combined color, taste, sound, and a man who blind from birth paints by sense of touch, including brain study conducted at Harvard University showing his visual areas activated as he paints, and a man who becomes a sudden savant with amazing mathematical ability, and Ray Kurzweil who seeks immortality by taking steps to live long enough (has family history of heart disease among other things) to become a benefactor of breakthroughs in gene/stem cell research, and a man who controls his body temperature and attempts to run a 1/2 marathon in subzero temperatures in only shorts, and no shoes.

One more thing, when they performed a simple memory test (recall 15 items on a list) on the woman with synesthesia she got 9 right after being read the list. The interview went on for over an hour and then unannounced came back to the same test. This time she got 14 of the 15 right. Somehow in that period her mind had stored that information, even thought the first time she couldn't recall them. Pretty remarkable.

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

zooby,

After a second look, at 7:15 in his presentation, Cytowic states, about 1 in 23 people have some form of synesthesia, and that the most common kind is sensing days of the week as color. At 12:00 he says, about 1 in 10 people have the number form without synesthesia, and you have synesthesia you have about a 60% chance of having a number form. I am a bit confused as well, because about a minute before he was introducing the number form describing it with a visual, further qualifying it as spatial sequence synesthesia, because what numbers, calendars, shoe sizes, temperatures, etc... are is that they are all over learned sequences. Listen to these two segments carefully and see if your interpretation is what I reported above.
I look at it this way, the section from 11 to 12 minutes is complex, linked and detailed, maybe critical focus was lost and he did not fully clarify what he intended to say.

I finally watched this yesterday and I agree that he failed, for some reason, to clearly lay out this whole "number form" thing. He implies that a "number form" is related to, but is not exactly, synesthesia. "Number form", though, from the context, seems to be short for "the number form of synesthesia". He has, after all, thrown it in amongst discussions of forms of synesthesia. Yet, having a "number form" seems merely to mean someone has an externally located and positioned association with numbers with no sensory hallucination. I can't tell for sure. It's very confusing.

 

[rhody]

I finally watched this yesterday and I agree that he failed, for some reason, to clearly lay out this whole "number form" thing. He implies that a "number form" is related to, but is not exactly, synesthesia. "Number form", though, from the context, seems to be short for "the number form of synesthesia". He has, after all, thrown it in amongst discussions of forms of synesthesia. Yet, having a "number form" seems merely to mean someone has an externally located and positioned association with numbers with no sensory hallucination. I can't tell for sure. It's very confusing.

zooby,

I agree. I came to the same conclusion as you. No one is perfect, even when speaking in public. That being said, after I post my summary of the last 1/2 of the book, I am almost done reading it. I have a nagging question, in rare cases people have what is known as bi-directional synesthesia, which I take to mean, sound sensation -> color sensation -> taste sensation -> sound sensation ? which may occur in many forms due to the combinations possible when mixing two or more of the five senses.

I will try to do some research on my own and include any clarifying information that I dig up. Right now I am led to believe that anyone who has bi-directional synesthesia leads a quiet secluded life for obvious reasons with sensation overload and annoying repeating feedback.

Rhody...

 

[rhody]

Just found this: http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/html/types.htm" from over 1090 people participating.

Also: from the same link:

Dr Cytowic now has plenty of company doing research as well.

Note: Dr Ramachandran who wrote Phantoms in the Brain, for me that launched this little learning adventure last winter.

Feel free to probe and contribute if you wish.

Up to date list of researchers and their published articles/research, profiles/pictures on this page, quite nice...

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

zooby,
I have a nagging question, in rare cases people have what is known as bi-directional synesthesia, which I take to mean, sound sensation -> color sensation -> taste sensation -> sound sensation ? which may occur in many forms due to the combinations possible when mixing two or more of the five senses.

From the videos alone, no further research, I understood bi-directional synesthesia to involve only two senses. Let's take taste and touch. In the case of bi-directional synesthesia a person would have their sense of touch activated by tasting food, and would also have their sense of taste activated by touching things. So, eating a pizza would cause then to feel as if they're touching a particular kind of surface, form, or material. Likewise, touching a piece of wood, for example, would cause them to feel they're tasting a particular substance in their mouth. So, this scenario goes through my mind: at the same time they're tasting the pizza and having some feeling of touch triggered, touching the pizza would trigger a conflicting taste in their mouth. Depending on the senses involved you could imagine it might be hellish, and this bi-directionality of two senses alone could cause the kind of sensory overload that would lead them to sequester themselves.

The other thing, multi-modal synesthesia, wasn't completely clear to me from the videos. I had the impression that the many modes were always triggered by stimulation of the same initial sense. Sound might trigger taste and a color display. But it wouldn't be bi-directional. Initially tasting something wouldn't also trigger the other two, and the initial sight of a splash of colors wouldn't trigger the other two. There would be a dedicated triggering sense that had to be stimulated to cause the rest to activate.

There is a review-like compactness to his remarks that sometimes ends up being cryptic. He only alludes to things that probably should be more thoroughly explained. Maybe he's assuming familiarity with his new book.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I also have letter-color synaesthesia. The colors are typically very specific shades, and sometimes they seem to have other qualities such as shininess or translucence. Someone earlier mentioned that A tends to be red, B blue, and C yellow. However, for me, A is a reddish orange, B is light blue, C is pale yellow. E is bright, cherry red.

Ben, does reversing the background have any effect? Are white letters on black any different?

Here's a page of Blackle (the energy saving google) where the letters and numerals are all white on black background:

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=013269018370076798483:gg7jrrhpsy4&cof=FORID:1&q=synesthesia&sa=Search

Same question for waht and daughter of evo.

 

[rhody]

Ben, does reversing the background have any effect? Are white letters on black any different?

Here's a page of Blackle (the energy saving google) where the letters and numerals are all white on black background:

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=013269018370076798483:gg7jrrhpsy4&cof=FORID:1&q=synesthesia&sa=Search

Same question for waht and daughter of evo.

zooby, what, and Evo, via Evo child,

I just read zooby's question, and looking down the author/publication list a few posts ago, I found this: http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/Dixonetal2005.pdf" .

After you read the first paragraph or two, a simple question, does the sensation of color letters appear on the page, or projected into external space, according to Dr Dixon, projection only occurs in about 10% of people with the sensation in colors and letters ?

From quickly scanning the conclusions I think they are trying to determine if those with color letter synesthesia have better comprehension, recognition, etc... in processing the information than those who don't have it.

Rhody...

 

[waht]

Ben, does reversing the background have any effect? Are white letters on black any different?

Here's a page of Blackle (the energy saving google) where the letters and numerals are all white on black background:

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=013269018370076798483:gg7jrrhpsy4&cof=FORID:1&q=synesthesia&sa=Search

Same question for waht and daughter of evo.

That's interesting. I'll try to do my best to describe it. The black background and white/gray letters are sort of uncomfortable, but the visual letter to color association is still there. When I close my eyes, and mentally think of a letter or say it outloud, I also experience a sense of color. When I changed font color to green, and keep background black, I would say it's harder to get a color experience just from visual input. What happened was I looked at a green letter "A" for example, and sort of have to think of an "A" and then get a color experience similarly as if I had my eyes closed and thought about it.

Interestingly, when I changed to a white background, and keeping font green, I get a direct letter to color experience rather quickly.

So I'm not really sure what's going on exactly, the differences are subtle. I would say though that there is a time delay that varies from the point of looking at the letter to getting a synesthesia color "kick" and it subtly varies from different combinations of font and background colors.

 

[waht]

After you read the first paragraph or two, a simple question, does the sensation of color letters appear on the page, or projected into external space, according to Dr Dixon, projection only occurs in about 10% of people with the sensation in colors and letters ?

After reading those paragraphs, I'd say definitely that there is no external projections going on, it's more of an internal thing. Although I do have a biased urge to say that letters should have those synesthesia generated colors. So if "A" conjures up images of yellow, I also feel that it should be yellow.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I wanted to re-read Man Who Tasted Shapes but the one copy in the library system here was on hold.

I found out both Amazon and Ebay have many paperback copies available for, like, a dollar (plus shipping).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446670685/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I ordered one, and am already halfway through my re-reading. It's very much more interesting than I remembered. I think anyone who's been following this thread won't be disappointed if they spring the five or so bucks for a copy ($1.00 for the book, $4.00 for the shipping, I paid.)

 

[rhody]

I wanted to re-read Man Who Tasted Shapes but the one copy in the library system here was on hold.

I found out both Amazon and Ebay have many paperback copies available for, like, a dollar (plus shipping).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446670685/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I ordered one, and am already halfway through my re-reading. It's very much more interesting than I remembered. I think anyone who's been following this thread won't be disappointed if they spring the five or so bucks for a copy ($1.00 for the book, $4.00 for the shipping, I paid.)

zooby,

If you finish the first half of the book, take a quick peek at my post #34, and feel free to add anything that struck you. I am almost finished with the book, and plan to post the rest of my insights here soon, I will copy the list from post #34 and include the last half in one place for ease of reading. I just looked at Cytowic's personal site and plan to buy, "The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology" next and report back on it. Like I said awhile ago, I think this thread has plenty of life (because of my interest) in it. HeHe. This is a general comment, I can't believe with the fairly large membership on PF, that there aren't more synesthetes lurking about.

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

zooby,

If you finish the first half of the book, take a quick peek at my post #34, and feel free to add anything that struck you. I am almost finished with the book, and plan to post the rest of my insights here soon, I will copy the list from post #34 and include the last half in one place for ease of reading. I just looked at Cytowic's personal site and plan to buy, "The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology" next and report back on it. Like I said awhile ago, I think this thread has plenty of life (because of my interest) in it. HeHe. This is a general comment, I can't believe with the fairly large membership on PF, that there aren't more synesthetes lurking about.

Rhody...

I'm thinking there's not a lot to be gained by keeping such careful notes on this particular book. At the time of writing he says ten out of a million people have synesthesia. Of course we all know that's been majorly revised to one in twenty-three people. From the videos you posted we see a large part of the technical data in Shapes is outdated. He's chucked his whole limbic theory as well, which is a main thrust in this book.

The book to take notes on would be his latest, Wednesday is Indigo Blue.

The Man Who Tasted Shapes is still an extremely worthwhile read because of the vivid descriptions you get of the condition from his interviews with the two synesthetes who've accidentally fallen into his lap, and because this book is the story of the revival of interest in the subject, which had been dormant for decades, and more so the story of his giving credibility to the subject. It's really a great introduction to neurology in general for the layman, even better than books by Oliver Sacks.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

I tend to remember music by smells/scents, but I don't believe I have Synesthesia.

Is there a good definition available? Unlike the word "synaesthesia" describes, lists of synaesthetic experiences include seemingly non-sensory modes, such as learned or cultural concepts such as graphemes and units of time. Along the lines of the quote from Hypatia, metaphores, goose-bump reactions to music, dance etc, are mentioned as related, but I'm not sure how they differ. Eagleman speculates upon further modes of memory, planning, and morality. Emotion appears related. The best definition I've seen is "atypical binding within or between modalities"(Cohen Kadosh). In that case, I wonder about the amount of atypicality.

 

[rhody]

zooby,

I just finished the book, I didn't realize that the Afterword was added in 2002 from pages 231 - 254 and includes some information you may or may not be aware of.
Make sure you have the new book with the afterword, and not an older copy without it. There are a couple of areas in the Afterword I think others will find of interest. When you said in your last post, that since finishing the book, "The Man who Tasted Shapes" he chucked the whole limbic theory, could you elaborate on that. I have to go through the marked pages in the last half of the book and find new observations/facts/tests/testimony that wrap this up. I may read the other book, "Wednesday is Indigo Blue" as well in the future. I will post the remaining summary soon.

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

zooby,

I just finished the book, I didn't realize that the Afterword was added in 2002 from pages 231 - 254 and includes some information you may or may not be aware of.
Make sure you have the new book with the afterword, and not an older copy without it.

Oh! Now you tell me.

Hehe. It's too late. I'm see one of the reasons my copy was probably so cheap is because it's from 1993. Prolly first paperback edition. Doesn't have the update.

There are a couple of areas in the Afterword I think others will find of interest. When you said in your last post, that since finishing the book, "The Man who Tasted Shapes" he chucked the whole limbic theory, could you elaborate on that.

This came out in an offhand remark he made in the long video while he was showing slides of cortical activation of sensory areas. These scans showed that both cortical areas are activated: that of the externally stimulated sense, and that of the concomitant synesthetic sense. In reference to this documentation of cortical activation, he mentioned that formerly he believed that the cortex was inactivated and the limbic system hyperactivated. He says, with a touch of embarrassment it seemed, something to the effect "We've had to put all that thinking behind us now." (I haven't rechecked the video, so that's an anecdotal recollection.)

I didn't construe that to mean he doesn't think the limbic system participates, (it has to be adding the strong emotional associations, at least, and also performing the memory formulation that is so strong in synesthetes), but it would mean he no longer believes the limbic system participates in the manner he used to suspect. In a separate paper I found, about five years back, he said that he suspected the mixing was specifically taking place in the hippocampus. That makes a certain amount of sense if you believe the cortex is silent. This newer evidence of cortical activation ought to shift the salient limbic involvement to the thalamus. The thalamus is the "conductor" of the cortical "members of the orchestra". Synesthesia would result if the thalamus misdirected both the violins and the brass to play the violin part, metaphorically speaking.

I have to go through the marked pages in the last half of the book and find new observations/facts/tests/testimony that wrap this up. I may read the other book, "Wednesday is Indigo Blue" as well in the future. I will post the remaining summary soon.

I still have a hundred or so pages to go. I'll wait to see if I feel like jumping right to "Indigo Blue". I also ordered "Synesthesia: a Union of the Senses" because I found a dirt cheap copy on ebay. In most places it's on the expensive side. I bid on, and won, a copy for $5.00. (It says it's a "signed" copy. I don't know if that's supposed to mean autographed by Cytowic or that it's defaced by the signature of some former owner.)

 

[rhody]

Oh! Now you tell me.

Hehe. It's too late. I'm see one of the reasons my copy was probably so cheap is because it's from 1993. Prolly first paperback edition. Doesn't have the update.


This came out in an offhand remark he made in the long video while he was showing slides of cortical activation of sensory areas. These scans showed that both cortical areas are activated: that of the externally stimulated sense, and that of the concomitant synesthetic sense. In reference to this documentation of cortical activation, he mentioned that formerly he believed that the cortex was inactivated and the limbic system hyperactivated. He says, with a touch of embarrassment it seemed, something to the effect "We've had to put all that thinking behind us now." (I haven't rechecked the video, so that's an anecdotal recollection.)

I didn't construe that to mean he doesn't think the limbic system participates, (it has to be adding the strong emotional associations, at least, and also performing the memory formulation that is so strong in synesthetes), but it would mean he no longer believes the limbic system participates in the manner he used to suspect. In a separate paper I found, about five years back, he said that he suspected the mixing was specifically taking place in the hippocampus. That makes a certain amount of sense if you believe the cortex is silent. This newer evidence of cortical activation ought to shift the salient limbic involvement to the thalamus. The thalamus is the "conductor" of the cortical "members of the orchestra". Synesthesia would result if the thalamus misdirected both the violins and the brass to play the violin part, metaphorically speaking.


I still have a hundred or so pages to go. I'll wait to see if I feel like jumping right to "Indigo Blue". I also ordered "Synesthesia: a Union of the Senses" because I found a dirt cheap copy on ebay. In most places it's on the expensive side. I bid on, and won, a copy for $5.00. (It says it's a "signed" copy. I don't know if that's supposed to mean autographed by Cytowic or that it's defaced by the signature of some former owner.)

zooby,

I am not worried, I know I am in good company here, we will get it right and sorted out, after all, that's what doing research is all about. Hey, I didn't know I could be a poet too. hehe

Rhody...

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Particularly regarding grapheme-colour synaesthesia, and looking at VBM, MEG, fMRI and EEG data, a lot of interest lies in the fusiform gyrus amongst other areas, for example-

V4/V8 is mentioned by Nunn et al., 2002
http://www.psych.ndsu.nodak.edu/mcco...nesthesia).pdf

Weiss and Fink, 2008 mention the fusiform gyrus and parietal cortex.
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/.../full/awn304v3


In Hubbard, Arman, Ramachandran & Boynton, 2005 "Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Synesthesia" there is also the prediction that-

In lower synesthetes, we suggest that crossactivation may occur between adjacent regions of the fusiform gyrus involved in letter recognition and color processing, whereas higher synesthesia may arise from crossactivation in the parietal cortex, particularly in the region of the angular gyrus, the ventral intraparietal area, and the lateral intraparietal area (Hubbard et al., 2005b).
http://www.unicog.org/publications/H...onReview05.pdf

 

[fuzzyfelt]

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...3zDVFw&sig=AHIEtbTtrwzDwuLK0KL0kOWOLwD_wnlplw


This is a bit old, 2006, but I think it answers my question to a large extent, in that it may be impossible to have a good definition yet. Amongst other possibilities, it is possible that everyone is born with this and that state changes, or it is possible, more broadly, that it is something that everyone has and it remains with them, to some degree. Such possibilities are evidenced in acquired synaesthesia, like in those who have lost or impaired modes, and in induced synaesthesia, for example, hypnotism amongst other research-

Linking is not working, but the paper is called "Induced Cross-Modal Synaesthetic Experience Without Abnormal Neuronal Connections", Cohen Kadosh et al.

As well, the paper discusses prevalence of cross-modality, as well as possible underlying universals and possible mechanisms common to synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes alike.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I am not worried, I know I am in good company here, we will get it right and sorted out, after all, that's what doing research is all about. Hey, I didn't know I could be a poet too. hehe

All neurolgists are natural poets, a fact I invented just now.

Rhody, I am afraid I have just discovered the book ends on page 152, the end of the chapter about the xenon gas test. After that Cytowic goes off into off-topic rants about attitudes that bother him. Way too much opinion, not enough synesthesia.

I discovered the San Diego Public Library system has 4 (FOUR) copies of Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, but they are all checked out! This seemingly obscure subject is certainly becoming pretty popular.

 

[rhody]

I hesitate to mention this, that being said, I wanted to relate a brief experience I had yesterday, late in the day while reading a boring article on a PC. The background was off white with uniform back lettering in my field of view, no graphics, color, different fonts, etc..

I was forcing myself to read it, after awhile my head dipped a bit and I nodded off for a bit and when my autonomic reflex action took over my head snapped up, and the display changed, but only for a second when I opened my eyes, before and after each word in the normal whitespace areas were small half moon semi-circles that were a blood red color.

I was still pretty tired and this did not register, and I nodded off a second time, this time my field of view was lower on the screen and horizonally across a single line two words appeared to be highlighted in light green, while one was what I would call a burnt orange. After the second rebound, I woke up fully and the recognition of what I just had experienced sank in. If it were not for studying synesthesia I doubt I would have paid attention, or noticed the extra background color, so to speak.

I will only believe it is not part of an active imagination when it happens again. If I have a nodding off experience and see similar colors with the same stimuli will I think that I had a glimpse into what some experience daily. It was not unpleasant or distracting at all, just added input that I was easily able to deal with.

Rhody...