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Dermo-optical perception: the non-synesthetic "palpability of colors" a comment on Larner (2006)
1Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. peter.brugger@usz.ch
Abstract:
We comment on Larner's (2006) recent description of the seventeenth-century case of a blind man who could differentiate the color of objects by touch. This ability is generally known as "dermo-optical perception" and is due to the cutaneous temperature sense rather than to synesthetic processing. Although devoid of references to the phenomenon of dermo-optical perception, Larner's communication is highly valuable because it raises several issues relevant to present-day neurosciences. These comprise functional reorganization after sensory loss, handedness effects, and differences between single fingers in the sensitivity to thermal changes.
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