Month: September 2022

ENHANCED PERCEPTION. “Outside the realm of memory research there is accumulating evidence of enhanced sensory processing in synesthesia as well. Specifically, grapheme-color synesthetes show enhanced detection of colors on a perceptually low-level visual test of parvocellular processing paralleled by the finding of differences in early visual processes to simple colors using visual-evoked potentials well before the time period in the brain in which synesthesia engages.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

ENHANCED DISCRIMINATION. “Number-color synesthetes are also more sensitive at discriminating very similar colors.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

INCREASED PROCESSING. “These early perceptual effects suggest that synesthesia is associated with increased processing of color information; however, it remains possible that these differences in color processing are not due to synesthesia itself but are merely caused by synesthetes' excessive experience with colors.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

ENHANCED ACUITY. “Confirming these sensory enhancements in a different form of the condition, Banissy and colleagues demonstrated that mirror-touch synesthetes (individuals who experience tactile sensations on their own body while watching someone else being touched) possess increased tactile acuity.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

GREATER ACCURACY. “Individuals who experience auditory sounds evoked by visual motion process rhythmic visual stimuli more accurately than controls and in a manner similar to how non-synesthetes process auditory information.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE. “These demonstrations of enhanced processing of sensory information suggest a provocative evolutionary hypothesis for synesthesia: synesthetic experiences may serve as cognitive and perceptual anchors to aid in the detection, processing, and retention of critical stimuli in the world; in terms of memory benefits, these links are akin to a method of loci association.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

ADDITIVE. “In addition to facilitating processes in individual sensory modalities, synesthetes also show increased communication between the senses unrelated to their synesthetic experiences, suggesting that benefits from synesthesia generalize to other modalities as well, supporting their ability to process multisensory information.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

INTERLINKING. “Others have argued that synesthesia is the direct result of enhanced communication between the senses as a logical outgrowth of the cross-modality interactions present in all individuals.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

PROCESSING UPTICK. “Taken collectively, these data suggest that synesthesia may be associated with enhanced primary sensory processing as well as the integration between the senses.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

MISSING GENES. “However, to fully understand this relationship, identification of the genetic component involved and evidence of selection on these genes will be required to determine whether synesthesia serves to enhance normal sensory processing.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn