AN OVERVIEW OF SYNESTHESIA

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the condition of synesthesia. The review looks at the prevalence and various types of this perceptual mode. It also presents a discussion of the relationship of neurobiology and psychology in synesthesia.

However, one point that must be made is that there are reasons to doubt the existence of synesthesia. For example, da Costa (1996) reports that the condition tends to be conceptualized using phenomenological rather than measurable, behavioral and more biophysical terms. Further, she points out that most studies of the condition are phenomenological without much in the way of physiological or anatomical substantiation. Indeed, without this substantiation, da Costa reports that the phenomenon of synesthesia will be relegated to the same category as tales of UFOs who have been visiting earth and abducting people. Therefore, this paper also presents an examination of the empirica

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model of the condition, at least in current thought, is that the joining of senses characteristic of synesthesia is neither simply an intensification of metaphor, nor is it language based. Rather, the thinking is that synesthesia is a function of the brain rather than the mind, and resides only in the left hemisphere. In other words, synesthesia may have psychological effects in terms of sensation and perception, but it is rooted in neurobiological processes and functions. The psychological component is involved mostly in terms of learning how to live with it in a world where most people's sensation/perception mechanisms are not the same. It should be noted that there is good support for the idea that synesthesia is associated with brain function in that numerous studies have now shown clear differences in the brain activity of those with synesthesia and those who do not have the condition. For example, Nunn, Gregory, Brammer, Williams, Parslow, Morgan, Morris, Bullmore, Baron-Cohen and Gray (2002) used functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in a comparison of people with synesthesia (color-hearing) and regular sensory perception. They found significant differences in terms of activations of the 'color" center of t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1553
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)