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Essays on synesthesia
Essays on synesthesia
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Reality isn’t real; imagine a world in which two or more of your senses were combined into one sense and perceived by you as one sense. You can start to see the world as a synesthete; their reality is completely different from most. Synesthesia is a perceptual bonus or condition, not a disease for those who experience it; I believe the condition should be more widely explained and understood by the general populous and resources made available to the people to see if they are Synesthetes. This can be done by examining how synesthesia works, the abilities of mirror neurons, what and how synesthetes feel, what qualifies a person to be synesthetic, and my personal experiences with synesthesia. If the general population understands how synesthesia works, they can better grasp how synesthetes feel and function.
I, Kyle Turner, am a synesthete, which has its own implications upon my person. I am most dominantly a mirror-touch synesthete, but also have a more minor case of time-space synesthesia. In my case, I didn’t discover that I had synesthesia or that anything was different in me until May fifth, 2010. For me, this is a very recent discovery and very shocking. I have been a synesthete since my birth, and until May fifth, I believed that everyone had the senses that I did. I saw no reason to question my own senses, for I saw nothing other than what I saw and felt. For my mirror-touch, I feel almost every touch that I see, but I usually have to know the recipient of the touch or I have to be able to relate to the recipient. All synesthetes have different abilities and different technicalities. For example, 3 isn’t always green in color-grapheme synesthetes, and these variances occur in my mirror-touch case as well. I usually feel as ...
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Jarick, M. "The Cognitive Benefits of Time-space Synaesthesia : Neurophilosophy." ScienceBlogs. 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 24 May 2010. .
Jedacek, Natalie P. "Synesthesia." Personal interview. 1 May 2010.
Silverman, Jacob. "Can People Feel the Pain of Others?" Audio blog post. How Stuff Works. Discovery Networks, 22 June 2007. Web. 23 May 2010. .
Steen, Carol. "About Synesthesia." American Synesthesia Association. American Synesthesia Association, 15 May 2010. Web. 24 May 2010. .
"Synesthesia and Mirror Neurons." Weekends in Paradelle. 2 May 2010. Web. 24 May 2010. .
Imagine a world where numbers, letters, tastes, and sounds have color. Imagine a world where letters and numbers have personalities. For a synesthete, this is their world. Synesthesia occurs from a cross wiring in the brain. Instead of one sense being used in a particular action, multiple senses are used. Although little medical knowledge is known about the condition, it is fascinating and continues to impact our world.
Three lines of evidence suggest that PVS patients are "noncognitive, nonsentient, and incapable of conscious experience [12]." First, motor and eye movement, and facial expressions in response to stimuli occur in stereotyped patterns rather than learned reactions. Second, positron emission tomography reveals cerebral glucose metabolism at a level far below those who are aware or in locked in states. PVS levels are comparable to those in deep general anesthesia and as such are totally unaware and insensate. Third, neuropathological examinations of PVS patients show "lesions so severe and diffuse [12]" that it would be almost impossible, giving our current understanding of neural an...
Increasing amount of research in recent years has added to developing knowledge of phantom limb pain (PLP). In this research proposal I aim to test the mirror therapy as an effective treatment in PLP. Phantom limb pain occurs in at least 90% of limb amputees. PLP may be stimulated by disconnection between visual feedback and proprioceptive representations of the amputated limb. Therefore, I will research both the neurobiology behind this phenomenon and whether illusions and/or imagery of movement of the amputated limb (mirror therapy) is effective in alleviating PLP of lower limbs. Mirror therapy has been used with noted success in patients who have had upper body amputation, but has not been determined in lower limb amputations. I would like to identify if form of treatment is equally effective in lower limb amputations. Yet, to consider mirror therapy as an effective means of treatment, one must understand PLP in its entirety. The main concern being if a limb is no longer attached to the body, how can neurons in the limb transport signals to the nervous system in order for the body to detect sensations? The biological significance of this project is to determine what occurs on the sensory level to cause PLP. Once that is discovered we can address whether or not mirror therapy is a plausible form of treatment.
The philosophical theory of dualism holds that mind and body are two separate entities. While dualism presupposes that the two ‘substances’ may interact, it contrasts physicalism by refusing to denote correlation between body and mind as proof of identity. Comparing the two theories, dualism’s invulnerable proof of the existence of qualia manages to evade arguments from physicalism. While a common argument against qualia—non-physical properties defined in Jackson’s Knowledge Argument—targets the unsound nature of epiphenomenalism, this claim is not fatal to the theory of dualism as it contains claims of causation and fails to stand resolute to the conceivability of philosophical zombies. This essay argues that epiphenomenalism, while often designated as a weakness when present in an argument, can remain in valid arguments from qualia.
This paper aims to endorse physicalism over dualism by means of Smart’s concept of identity theory. Smart’s article Sensations and the Brain provides a strong argument for identity theory and accounts for many of it primary objections. Here I plan to first discuss the main arguments for physicalism over dualism, then more specific arguments for identity theory, and finish with further criticisms of identity theory.
Perception is an intangible part of every being. It cannot be explained, defined, or nailed down the way that most scientists would like. In some ways, perception can be taught-a person's circumstance and background would cause him or her to perceive a situation in a particular way. In other ways, perception is unpredictable and ever changing. Even here, attempting to describe the indescribable, there are flaws in the last two sentences because they are based on the writer's perceptions of perception. It is too subjective for a "scientific" definition. What does it mean for a person suffering from bradykinesia? If the individual understands the condition, she will realize that the perceptions she has are not always correct. She may perceive herself to be making a fist, or spreading her fingers, but in fact she may not have accomplished this. (1) A blind and deaf person may have perceptions about the world around her. Most likely, her only correct perceptions are those perceptions about herself such as: "I am moving my arm," or "I am swinging my legs." The external stimuli are ineffective in this person, whereas a person with bradykinesia can only react completely and at a normal speed to external stimuli. Because of damage to signal pathways, the internal stimuli are ineffectively activated. (1)
Merritt’s Textbook of Neurology. 7th ed. Lea and Febiger. Philadelphia: 1984. Walton, Sir John.
The widely popular research on mirror neurons and various applications of the research findings began with an important, but unexpected finding in the brains of macaque monkeys. The original studies did not intend to look at mirror neurons and in fact the existence of mirror neurons was found by accident. Neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his colleagues found a group of cells that fired whenever a monkey prepared to act on a stimulus as well as when it watched another monkey act on the stimulus (Winerman, 2005). For example, the monkeys showed a similar pattern of activation when they were performing a simple motor action like grasping a peanut and when they watched another monkey perform the same action (Winerman, 2005). In other words, monkey see, monkey fire -- monkey do, monkey fire. This grouping of cells was called "mirror neurons." The ...
Phantom Limb Syndrome is when a patient has lost a limb, such as a body part (organs), an arm or leg, but can still feel the presents of the limb and is “able” to continue functions with the arm because of the presents of the phantom. This syndrome can be caused by losing a limb in a tragic accident or by being born without a limb or limbs. When people are born without the limb or limbs and have this syndrome it can be described as wishful thinking or by having a soul. Wishful thinking is where the person wishes that they have the syndrome but they actually do not even if they are showing the signs of having the syndrome. This sort of thinking can be shown in the case of John McGrath who was an arm amputee that had co...
Suddendorf, T. & Corballis, M.C. (2007) The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? [On-line] Available from: http://www.memorylab.org/Files/Corballis_MTT_BBS_2007.pdf, [accessed 5th May 2011].
Sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell are all known most commonly as the five senses (Peate & Jones, 2014). People uses these five senses on an everyday basis to perceive the world presented before them. The five senses allows people to see what’s before them, admire beauty, detect potential threats, feel, and listen. Some of these senses such as hearing and sight work together (Peate & Jones, 2014). In some cases people are not given the privilege, that others take for granted, or no longer have the privilege of one or many of these senses due to disease processes or trauma. Worldwide, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness (Peate & Jones, 2014). Glaucoma is a condition that causes optic nerve damage to the eye due to an increase
Sensation refers to the process of sensing what is around us in our environment by using our five senses, which are touching, smell, taste, sound and sight. Sensation occurs when one or more of the various sense organs received a stimulus. By receiving the stimulus, it will cause a mental or physical response. It starts in the sensory receptor, which are specialized cells that convert the stimulus to an electric impulse which makes it ready for the brain to use this information and this is the passive process. After this process, the perception comes into play of the active process. Perception is the process that selects the information, organize it and interpret that information.
After listening to the video, I learned that we as humans have a sixth sense. This sixth sense is known as proprioception and it’s the sense that our body uses to detect itself. Meaning it is the unconscious perception of our movements and posture that is being monitored all the time by our brain. Basically, it is the conversation that our mind and body are always having. I never knew about this sixth sense before or knew of any disorder that affected this sense before listening to Ian waterman’s story. In the video, Ian describes how he discovered his disability by trying to mow his lawn one day and waking up the next morning not knowing how to control his movements. Crazy, how that morning, his hand was on top of his face and he couldn’t
Tell me what red tastes like. That statement seems kind of off the wall, at least to 95.6% of the population, but the other 4.4% consider it completely normal, and could answer. Some people actually can taste colors. This is known as Synesthesia. Synesthesia, a condition where the connections in the brain over lap, makes a person’s senses combine. Having the ability to hear colors, smell numbers, and taste sounds can have its benefits. Synesthesia may prevent brain decay that comes with old age and help aid in recovery from a brain injury, help improve learning skills, and increase artistic and innovative ability.
J.). Those who have Mirror-touch obtain the ability to feel what others feel simply by looking at them. Even watching an emotional experience of another can elicit similar feelings in one who has Mirror-touch Synesthesia. The exact same areas of the brain are activated when touch is initiated by simply seeing it happen. For example, if someone with this ability watches someone who is crying, they in turn will feel that emotional turmoil. The condition is called “Mirror-touch” because a sensation in one on their left side is felt by the other on their opposite side. “For some synesthetes an observed touch on the left cheek triggered a synesthetic sensation on their left cheek (anatomical correspondence), but for others the synesthetic sensation was felt on the right cheek (as if they had been looking in a mirror, a specular correspondence)” (Nature Neuroscience). This can boost empathy in the sense that some with this particular form of Synesthesia can actually experience what another person is going through, thus increasing their understanding of the situation. These Synesthetes literally feel what others feel. In the experiment, however, this phenomena was not experienced by the control subject, making