Grapheme-color synesthesia insights gained

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, May 23 (UPI) -- Dutch scientists have acquired a greater understanding of grapheme-color synesthesia through a technique called diffusion tensor imaging.

People with the neurological condition perceive various colors associated with individual letters and numbers when looking at a page of text.

Now Romke Rouw, Steven Scholte and colleagues at the University of Amsterdam have found such people appear to have more neural connections in areas of their brain involved in word processing and binding perceptions.

The University of Amsterdam researchers used DTI to look at brain differences between grapheme-color synesthetes and people without the condition. They discovered synesthetes have more axons connecting three brain areas: the right fusiform gyrus, near regions involved in word and color processing and the left intraparietal sulcus, as well as the frontal cortex.

The study also found differences among the synesthetes, according to how they perceived the association between words and colors.

The scientists said their findings suggest increased connectivity in some areas is important for generating perceptual binding, while connectivity in other areas determines the intensity of the resultant perceptions.

The study appears in the June issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

 Related Images
 Related Polls
 Related Trivia
 Celebrity Gossip

Romke, Rouw, Steven, Scholte, University,
NETHERLANDS, SYNESTHESIA, tw science, tw top, Technology and Computers,