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Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which letters and numbers (graphemes) consistently evoke particular colors (e.g., A may be experienced as red). These sensations are thought to arise through the cross-activation of grapheme processing regions in the fusiform gyrus and color...

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Autores principales: Brang, David, Ghiam, Michael, Ramachandran, Vilayanur S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3812534/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24198775
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00717
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author Brang, David
Ghiam, Michael
Ramachandran, Vilayanur S.
author_facet Brang, David
Ghiam, Michael
Ramachandran, Vilayanur S.
author_sort Brang, David
collection PubMed
description Grapheme-color synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which letters and numbers (graphemes) consistently evoke particular colors (e.g., A may be experienced as red). These sensations are thought to arise through the cross-activation of grapheme processing regions in the fusiform gyrus and color area V4, supported by anatomical and functional imaging. However, the developmental onset of grapheme-color synesthesia remains elusive as research in this area has largely relied on self-report of these experiences in children. One possible account suggests that synesthesia is present at or near birth and initially binds basic shapes and forms to colors, which are later refined to grapheme-color associations through experience. Consistent with this view, studies show that similarly shaped letters and numbers tend to elicit similar colors in synesthesia and that some synesthetes consciously associate basic shapes with colors; research additionally suggests that synesthetic colors can emerge for newly learned characters with repeated presentation. This model further predicts that the initial shape-color correspondences in synesthesia may persist as implicit associations, driving the acquisition of colors for novel characters. To examine the presence of latent color associations for novel characters, synesthetes and controls were trained on pre-defined associations between colors and complex shapes, on the assumption that the prescribed shape-color correspondences would on average differ from implicit synesthetic associations. Results revealed synesthetes were less accurate than controls to learn novel shape-color associations, consistent with our suggestion that implicit form-color associations conflicted with the learned pairings.
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spelling pubmed-38125342013-11-06 Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia Brang, David Ghiam, Michael Ramachandran, Vilayanur S. Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Grapheme-color synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which letters and numbers (graphemes) consistently evoke particular colors (e.g., A may be experienced as red). These sensations are thought to arise through the cross-activation of grapheme processing regions in the fusiform gyrus and color area V4, supported by anatomical and functional imaging. However, the developmental onset of grapheme-color synesthesia remains elusive as research in this area has largely relied on self-report of these experiences in children. One possible account suggests that synesthesia is present at or near birth and initially binds basic shapes and forms to colors, which are later refined to grapheme-color associations through experience. Consistent with this view, studies show that similarly shaped letters and numbers tend to elicit similar colors in synesthesia and that some synesthetes consciously associate basic shapes with colors; research additionally suggests that synesthetic colors can emerge for newly learned characters with repeated presentation. This model further predicts that the initial shape-color correspondences in synesthesia may persist as implicit associations, driving the acquisition of colors for novel characters. To examine the presence of latent color associations for novel characters, synesthetes and controls were trained on pre-defined associations between colors and complex shapes, on the assumption that the prescribed shape-color correspondences would on average differ from implicit synesthetic associations. Results revealed synesthetes were less accurate than controls to learn novel shape-color associations, consistent with our suggestion that implicit form-color associations conflicted with the learned pairings. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3812534/ /pubmed/24198775 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00717 Text en Copyright © 2013 Brang, Ghiam and Ramachandran. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Brang, David
Ghiam, Michael
Ramachandran, Vilayanur S.
Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
title Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
title_full Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
title_fullStr Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
title_full_unstemmed Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
title_short Impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
title_sort impaired acquisition of novel grapheme-color correspondences in synesthesia
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3812534/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24198775
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00717
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