Jianli Wang1, Melissa Robinson-Long2,
Khristy Thompson3, Paul J. Eslinger2,4, Catherine
Lemley5
1Radiology, Penn State University
College of Medcine, Hershey, PA, United States; 2Neurology, Penn
State University College of Medcine, Hershey, PA, United States; 3Biology,
Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, United States; 4Neural
and Behavioral Sciences, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey,
PA, United States; 5Psychology, Elizabethtown College,
Elizabethtown, PA, United States
Synesthesia
is a condition that stimulation of one sensory modality will automatically
trigger another un-stimulated perception modality. Here we reported the first
fMRI study on sound-color synesthesia. The result shows that color center,
angular gyrus and superior parietal cortex are involved in some sound-color
photisms. Background noise control is critical in the study of sound-color
synesthesia using fMRI. Our observation suggests that there may be different
levels or subcategories of sound-color synesthesia and attention distraction
may be an effective method for defining subcategories of this synesthesia.
Keywords