Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Synesthesia

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a remarkable condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People with synesthesia experience a blending or crossing of their senses, such as sight and sound, leading to cross-modal sensations. In this condition, the stimulation of one sense, such as hearing a number or musical note, triggers an experience of another sense, like sensing a specific color, taste, or smell. People...

Color Vision

Color Vision

Color perception begins in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Two main theories explain how colors are seen: the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. The trichromatic theory, proposed by Thomas Young in 1802 and extended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, suggests that color vision is based on three types of cone receptors in the retina. These cones are sensitive to different but overlapping ranges of wavelengths corresponding to red, blue, and green.

Visual Agnosia

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...

Working Memory

Working Memory

Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this information.

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that objects remain consistent and unchanged even when their appearance varies due to changes in sensory input. There are four main types of perceptual constancy: size constancy, shape constancy, color constancy, and brightness constancy.
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...

Visual System

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Correction: Cognitive load-dependent effects of HD-tDCS on the executive vigilance decrement: insights from aperiodic EEG activity.

Frontiers in cognition·2026

Same author

Cognitive load-dependent effects of HD-tDCS on the executive vigilance decrement: insights from aperiodic EEG activity.

Frontiers in cognition·2026

Same author

Transdiagnostic Biomarkers and Mechanistic Heterogeneity in Cognitive Fatigue: A Response to Rudroff.

Psychological medicine·2026

Same author

Global prevalence and disability burden of brain disorders: Impact of neurological, mental, and substance use disorders.

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews·2026

Same author

Correction: When randomisation is not good enough: Matching groups in intervention studies.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026

Same author

Harnessing plasticity potential of the brain: A perspective on transcranial random noise stimulation for learning.

Neural regeneration research·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 9, 2026

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

Enhanced dimension-specific visual working memory in grapheme-color synesthesia.

Devin Blair Terhune¹, Olga Anna Wudarczyk, Priya Kochuparampil

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK. devin.terhune@psy.ox.ac.uk

|July 30, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Grapheme-color synesthesia enhances color working memory, suggesting visual processing and memory share neural mechanisms. This condition provides insights into how sensory perception impacts working memory capabilities.

Keywords:

Color-processing Grapheme-processing Synesthesia Visual Working memory n-Back

More Related Videos

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 9, 2026

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Human Psychology

Background:

Visual information encoding and working memory maintenance may share neural resources.
Atypical perception could influence working memory performance.
Grapheme-color synesthesia involves involuntary color experiences with graphemes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if grapheme-color synesthesia benefits working memory.
To differentiate between dual-coding and enhanced processing hypotheses for synesthesia's memory effects.
To explore the relationship between sensory processing and working memory.

Main Methods:

Three n-back experiments comparing synesthetes and controls.
Participants viewed graphemes and maintained color or grapheme information in working memory.
Analysis excluded alternative explanations like enhanced color discrimination or familiarity.

Main Results:

Synesthetes showed superior color working memory compared to controls.
No significant differences in grapheme working memory were observed between groups.
Results supported enhanced dimension-specific visual processing in synesthesia.

Conclusions:

Grapheme-color synesthesia confers enhanced dimension-specific visual working memory.
Findings support a close link between sensory processing and working memory maintenance.
The study provides evidence for shared neural mechanisms in perception and working memory.