Purpose Of Review: Synesthesia is an extraordinary perceptual phenomenon, in which individuals experience unusual percepts elicited by the activation of an unrelated sensory modality or by a cognitive process. Emotional reactions are commonly associated. The condition prompted philosophical debates on the nature of perception and impacted the course of art history. It recently generated a considerable interest among neuroscientists, but its clinical significance apparently remains underevaluated. This review focuses on the recent studies regarding variants of color synesthesia, the commonest form of the condition.
Recent Findings: Synesthesia is commonly classified as developmental and acquired. Developmental forms predispose to changes in primary sensory processing and cognitive functions, usually with better performances in certain aspects and worse in others, and to heightened creativity. Acquired forms of synesthesia commonly arise from drug ingestion or neurological disorders, including thalamic lesions and sensory deprivation (e.g., blindness). Cerebral exploration using structural and functional imaging has demonstrated distinct patterns in cortical activation and brain connectivity for controls and synesthetes. Artworks of affected painters are most illustrative of the nature of synesthetic experiences.
Summary: Results of the recent investigations on synesthesia offered a remarkable insight into the mechanisms of perception, emotion and consciousness, and deserve attention both from neuroscientists and from clinicians.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/WCO.0000000000000169 | DOI Listing |
Front Psychol
January 2025
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Introduction: This study investigates the mechanisms underlying pitch class-color synesthesia, a cognitive trait in which musical pitches evoke color perceptions. Synesthesia in music particularly involves the association of pitch classes (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Psychol (Amst)
January 2025
Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, Vienna, Austria.
Colour plays an important role in the sighted world, not only by guiding and warning, but also by helping to make decisions, form opinions, and influence emotional landscape. While not everyone has direct access to this information, even people without colour vision (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCereb Cortex
November 2024
School of Psychology and Sussex Neuroscience, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom.
There is considerable interest in understanding the developmental origins and health implications of individual differences in brain structure and function. In this pre-registered study we demonstrate that a hidden subgroup within the general population-people with synesthesia (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
August 2024
Neurology, Saba University School of Medicine, The Bottom, BES.
Synesthesia is the involuntary association of different senses, where individuals experience one sensory modality in response to the stimulation of another. For example, a synesthete may perceive colors when reading certain numbers or associate specific tastes with particular words. Synesthesia manifests differently for individuals grouping the condition in subcategories such as grapheme-color, sound-to-color, lexical-gustatory, mirror-touch, and much more.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurosci
August 2024
Department for Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.
Grapheme-color synesthesia is a normal and healthy variation of human perception. It is characterized by the association of letters or numbers with color perceptions. The etiology of synesthesia is not yet fully understood.
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