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Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses
Synesthesia comes from the Greek syn (meaning union) and aisthesis (sensation), literally interpreted as a joining of the senses. Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information from one sense is joined or accompanies a perception in another. Dr. Cytowic reports extensive research into the physical, psychological, neural, and familial background of a group of synesthets. His findings form the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms that underlie this remarkable perceptual experience. His research demonstrates that this rare condition is brain-based and perceptual and not mind-based, as is the case with memory or imagery. Synesthesia offers a unique and detailed study of a condition which has confounded scientists for more than 200 years.
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Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses
Synesthesia comes from the Greek syn (meaning union) and aisthesis (sensation), literally interpreted as a joining of the senses. Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information from one sense is joined or accompanies a perception in another. Dr. Cytowic reports extensive research into the physical, psychological, neural, and familial background of a group of synesthets. His findings form the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms that underlie this remarkable perceptual experience. His research demonstrates that this rare condition is brain-based and perceptual and not mind-based, as is the case with memory or imagery. Synesthesia offers a unique and detailed study of a condition which has confounded scientists for more than 200 years.
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Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses

Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses

Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses

Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses

Overview

Synesthesia comes from the Greek syn (meaning union) and aisthesis (sensation), literally interpreted as a joining of the senses. Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information from one sense is joined or accompanies a perception in another. Dr. Cytowic reports extensive research into the physical, psychological, neural, and familial background of a group of synesthets. His findings form the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms that underlie this remarkable perceptual experience. His research demonstrates that this rare condition is brain-based and perceptual and not mind-based, as is the case with memory or imagery. Synesthesia offers a unique and detailed study of a condition which has confounded scientists for more than 200 years.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781461281498
Publisher: Springer New York
Publication date: 09/17/2011
Series: Springer Series in Neuropsychology
Edition description: Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1989
Pages: 354
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author


Richard E. Cytowic, M.D., MFA, a pioneering researcher in synesthesia, is Professor of Neurology at George Washington University. He is the author of Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses, The Man Who Tasted Shapes, The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology and (with David M. Eagleman) the Montaigne Medal–winner Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia, all published by the MIT Press.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1.- Historical Background.- How This Work Got Started.- Criticism of Experiential Responses.- The Ghost in the Machine.- How Does Mind Arise from Matter?.- How Materialism Transcends Itself.- Synesthetes as Cognitive Fossils.- 2 Synesthetes Speak for Themselves 23.- Synesthetes Speak for Themselves.- Similarity of Stories.- Range of Synesthetic Performance.- Synesthesia as an Unelaborated Percept.- Validity, Constancy, and Limits to Manipulation of the Parallel Sense.- Psychological Influence and Stigma.- What Is Synesthesia Good for?.- Familial Cases.- 3 Theories of Synesthesia: A Review and a New Proposal 61.- Diagnostic Criteria for Synesthesia.- What and Where is the Link?.- Theories of the Mechanism of Synesthesia.- Proposal for a Synesthetic Mediator.- Operationalizing the Theories of Synesthesia.- 4 Overlaps: To What Is Synesthesia Similar? 91.- Phenomena Similar to Synesthesia.- Supporting Evidence for Anatomical Localization.- A Disconnection Syndrome for Synesthesia: Analogy to Migraine Theory.- Relation of Synesthetic Perceptions to Klüver’s Form Constants.- Conclusion.- 5 The Neural Substrates of Synesthesia.- Conceptualization of Neural Tissue.- Achromatopsia.- Knowing and the Limbic System.- The Triune Brain.- Conclusion.- 6 Synesthesia and Language.- The Semantic Differential.- Language and Cross-Modal Associations.- Synesthesia as a Disconnection.- Language and Consciousness.- Language and Electrical Stimulation of the Brain.- 7 Synesthesia and Personality.- Number Forms.- Synesthetic Forms.- Psychological Parameters of Synesthetes.- Family Cases (Pedigrees).- Clairvoyance and Other Unusual Experiences.- 8 Synesthesia and Art.- Geometry, Color, and Form.- Divine Proportion and Dynamic Symmetry.- Color.- Art and Synesthesia.- 9 What isReal?.- Colored Illusions: Color Constancy and Colored Shadows.- Retinex Theory of Color Vision.- Phantom Vision and Blindsight.- Optic Imagery and the Gestaltists.- Microgenetics.- 10 Conclusions.

What People are Saying About This

Simon Baron-Cohen

This new edition brings the reader interested in synaesthesia rapidly up to date with the scholarly and scientific debates in this field, and will stand as the new textbook on this unusual condition.

From the Publisher

"This new edition brings the reader interested in synaesthesia rapidly up to date with the scholarly and scientific debates in this field, and will stand as the new textbook on this unusual condition."—Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, University of Cambridge

"In 1989, the first edition of Synesthesia rekindled discussion, which had died down somewhat since the 'synesthesia euphoria' of the 1920s. This new,revised edition explores the many theories that have emerged in the last ten years.

No one who is seriously interested in synesthesia can afford to ignore this book."—Jörg Jewanski, Conservatory Münster, Germany

Endorsement

In 1989, the first edition of Synesthesia rekindled discussion, which had died down somewhat since the 'synesthesia euphoria' of the 1920s. This new, revised edition explores the many theories that have emerged in the last ten years. No one who is seriously interested in synesthesia can afford to ignore this book.—Jörg Jewanski, Conservatory Münster, Germany

Jeorg Jewanski

In 1989, the first edition of Synesthesia rekindled discussion, which had died down somewhat since the 'synesthesia euphoria' of the 1920s. This new revised edition explores the many theories that have emerged in the last ten years. No one who is seriously interested in synesthesia can afford to ignore this book.

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