Synaesthesia

SYNAESTHESIA
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(January 25, 2012)
Outline
Introduction
Symptoms
The Effects
Treatment
Synaesthesia
Introduction
The article reviewed in this paper is “Mechanisms of synesthesia: cognitive and physiological constraints” by Grossenbacher & Lovelace (2001). It focuses its study on cognitive psychology and how the brain functions. It is based on the neurobiological theory to develop a neuroanatomical framework. Synesthesia is an activated sensory perception condition whereby the senses mingle as a result of cross wiring in the brain. An example can be hearing a musical note whereby a person with this disorder may see a given color. Other people normally taste spoken words. An example is when hearing the word ‘table’ these people may tend to taste apricots. Also, when they hear the word ‘book’, the people with this disorder taste soup. This condition is basically an activated sensor perception which does not take place in many people. A normal person contains five fundamental senses separated from each other (Grossenbacher & Lovelace 2001). Normally, hearing processes sound, vision perceives images and the fingers sense physical objects. In people with this disorder, the normal sensory stimuli of single modality cause perceptions in additional senses that are not related.
The condition is not only attractive but also fascinating on the basis to its effects on human cognition. This psychological disorder normally mimics different mechanisms of the brain. It then obscures its real physiology. People suffering from this disorder may ‘experience’ colors given that they listen or read words. Other people observe sounds or hear colors. There exist different types of synaesthesia involving all the senses like hearing, touch, vision, smell and taste. The most common type is color-letter synaesthesia. Most individuals with this disorder do not imagine life lacking these additional sensations; they perceive the disorder as a gift (Grossenbacher & Lovelace 2001).
Symptoms
Symptoms for this disorder vary much. In some people, ce...