Synesthesia

PSYCH 333 Exam 4

What is synesthesia?

A phenomenon where stimulation in one sensory or cognitive pathway automatically triggers an experience in another.

What does the term synesthesia mean?

Together sensation.

What is an inducer?

The stimulus that triggers a synesthetic experience.

What is a concurrent experience?

The additional sensory experience produced by the inducer.

Give an example of synesthesia.

Letter A automatically appearing red.

What are some common examples of synesthesia?

Music-colors, letters-colors, words-tastes, numbers-space, faces-colors, and flavors-shapes.

What does it mean that synesthesia is consistent?

Associations remain stable over time.

What does it mean that synesthesia is automatic?

Associations occur involuntarily.

What does it mean that synesthesia is elicited?

It requires an inducing stimulus.

When does synesthesia usually develop?

During childhood.

Who coined the term synesthesia?

Francis Galton.

What is intramodal synesthesia?

Synesthesia occurring within the same sensory modality.

What is an example of intramodal synesthesia?

Grapheme-color synesthesia.

What is intermodal synesthesia?

Synesthesia occurring across different sensory modalities.

What is an example of intermodal synesthesia?

Sound-color synesthesia.

What is the most common type of synesthesia?

Grapheme-color synesthesia.

What is grapheme-color synesthesia?

Letters and numbers automatically evoke colors.

Does grapheme-color synesthesia depend only on shape?

No, it depends on meaning and context.

How can context affect grapheme-color synesthesia?

The same symbol may evoke different colors depending on interpretation.

What does the effect of context suggest about synesthesia?

Higher-level cognition influences synesthetic experiences.

What is chromesthesia?

Sound-color synesthesia.

What is number-form synesthesia?

Numbers automatically occupy locations in space.

What is lexical-gustatory synesthesia?

Words automatically evoke taste sensations.

What triggers lexical-gustatory synesthesia?

Hearing, reading, or speaking words.

What is taste-sound synesthesia?

Musical sounds or intervals evoke tastes.

What is taste-shape synesthesia?

Flavors evoke geometric shapes.

What is face-color synesthesia?

Faces evoke specific colors.

What is an associator?

Someone who experiences synesthesia internally in the mind's eye.

What is a projector?

Someone who experiences synesthesia externally as if it is physically present.

Where do associators experience synesthetic colors?

Internally.

Where do projectors experience synesthetic colors?

Externally.

What percentage of the population has synesthesia?

Approximately 0.5–4%.

What is congenital synesthesia?

Synesthesia present from birth or early childhood.

What evidence suggests congenital synesthesia has a genetic basis?

It often runs in families.

What is acquired synesthesia?

Synesthesia that develops later in life.

What can cause acquired synesthesia?

Brain injury, epilepsy, psychedelic drugs, stroke, or neurological changes.

What brain area processes written letters and numbers?

Visual Word Form Area (VWFA).

What brain area is involved in color perception?

Area V4.

What happens when a grapheme-color synesthete sees a letter?

Both the VWFA and Area V4 become activated.

What is the cross-activation model?

The theory that extra neural connections between sensory areas produce synesthesia.

What is the most important theory of synesthesia?

The cross-activation model.

What is neural pruning?

The developmental removal of unnecessary neural connections.

How does failure of neural pruning explain synesthesia?

Extra cross-modal connections remain and continue functioning.

How does reduced inhibition explain synesthesia?

Cross-modal feedback is not suppressed as strongly.

What are the two major explanations for synesthesia?

Failure of neural pruning and reduced inhibition.

What is the synesthetic Stroop effect?

Slower responses when actual colors conflict with synesthetic colors.

Why is the synesthetic Stroop effect important?

It demonstrates that synesthetic experiences are automatic.

In a synesthetic Stroop task, what happens when the printed color matches the synesthetic color?

Responses are faster.

In a synesthetic Stroop task, what happens when the printed color conflicts with the synesthetic color?

Responses are slower.

Who conducted the hidden triangle study?

V. S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard.

What was the hidden triangle study?

A task where synesthetes could easily detect a triangle hidden among numbers due to synesthetic colors.

Why could grapheme-color synesthetes find the hidden triangle more easily?

Different numbers automatically appeared as different colors.

What did the hidden triangle study demonstrate?

Synesthetic colors influence perception and are not mere imagination.

What is crowding?

Difficulty identifying an object in peripheral vision when surrounded by similar objects.

How do synesthetes perform on crowding tasks?

They identify targets more quickly and accurately.

Why do synesthetes perform better on crowding tasks?

The target automatically receives a unique synesthetic color.

What does the crowding study demonstrate?

Synesthesia has genuine perceptual effects.

What is the big idea taught by synesthesia?

Perception is actively constructed by the brain.

What is the difference between sensation and perception?

Sensation is raw input; perception is the brain's interpretation.

Do perceptual systems provide a perfect representation of reality?

No, they evolved to support survival.

What does synesthesia suggest about perception?

The brain actively creates conscious experience rather than simply recording reality.

What is the high-yield brain area pair for grapheme-color synesthesia?

Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) and Area V4.

What is the high-yield chain for grapheme-color synesthesia?

Letter → VWFA → Area V4 → Color experience.