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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...
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Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
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Multiple neural mechanisms for coloring words in synesthesia.

Takemasa Yokoyama1, Yasuki Noguchi2, Hiroki Koga3

  • 1Department of Psychology, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan.

Neuroimage
|February 4, 2014
PubMed
Summary

Grapheme-color synesthesia involves letters inducing colors. This study reveals three distinct brain systems for lexical color rules, extending beyond previously known areas to include semantic processing regions.

Keywords:
MEGNeuroimagingSemantic knowledgeSynesthesiaWord

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics

Background:

  • Grapheme-color synesthesia links achromatic graphemes to specific colors.
  • Lexical color in synesthesia assigns a single color to entire words, following specific rules.
  • Previous research identified rules based on the first letter, ordinal position, and semantic information.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify the neural mechanisms underlying the three known rules of lexical color in grapheme-color synesthesia.
  • To investigate if distinct neural systems are responsible for each lexical coloring rule.
  • To explore the involvement of linguistic and semantic processing areas in synesthetic color production.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine brain activity in synesthetes.
  • Participants were presented with words and assessed for their induced lexical colors.
  • Analysis focused on identifying distinct neural networks associated with different lexical coloring rules.

Main Results:

  • Three separate neural systems were identified in the synesthete brain, corresponding to the three lexical color rules.
  • Neural systems for lexical coloring involve occipito-temporal and parietal regions, as well as left inferior frontal and anterior temporal linguistic areas.
  • These extended networks are engaged in semantic analysis, suggesting a role in word-level synesthetic color perception.

Conclusions:

  • The neural underpinnings of lexical color in synesthesia are more widespread and complex than previously assumed.
  • Distinct neural systems support different rules for generating synesthetic colors in response to words.
  • This highlights a multiplicity of synesthetic mechanisms within a single brain, involving higher cognitive functions like semantic processing.