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Grapheme-color and tone-color synesthesia is associated with structural brain changes in visual regions implicated in color, form, and motion

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Tim GriffithsORCiD, June Ward

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Abstract

Synesthesia is a rare condition in which stimulation in one modality leads to a secondary experience in another sensory modality. Varying accounts attribute the condition to either neuroanatomical differences between the synesthetes and non-synesthetes or functional differences in how sensory brain regions interact. This study employed voxel-based morphometry to examine whether synesthetes who experience both grapheme-color and tone-color synesthesia as their evoked sensation show neuroanatomical differences in gray matter volume compared to non-synesthetes. We observed that synesthetes showed an increase in gray matter volume in left posterior fusiform gyrus (FG), but a concomitant decrease in anterior regions of left FG and left MT/V5. These findings imply that synesthesia for color is linked to neuroanatomical changes between adjacent regions of the visual system.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Banissy MJ, Stewart L, Muggleton NG, Griffiths TD, Walsh VY, Ward J, Kanai R

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Cognitive Neuroscience

Year: 2012

Volume: 3

Issue: 1

Pages: 29-35

Print publication date: 14/11/2011

ISSN (print): 1758-8928

ISSN (electronic): 1758-8936

Publisher: Psychology Press

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2011.594499!

DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2011.594499

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