2012/07/02 by Jamie Ward · 234 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Automaticity #Automatism (medicine) #Cognition #Cognitive psychology #Cognitive science #Color perception and design #Epistemology #Multisensory perception and integration #Neuroscience #Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies #Perception #Phenomenology (philosophy) #Psychology #Synesthesia
paper · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143840
published in Annual Review of Psychology 64(1), 49-75 (Annual Reviews)
openalex publication_date 2012/07/02 · openalex created_date 2022/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Although synesthesia has been known about for 200 years, it is only in the past decade or so that substantial progress has been made in studying it empirically and in understanding the mechanisms that give rise to it. The first part of the review considers the characteristics of synesthesia: its elicited nature, automaticity, prevalence, and consistency, and its perceptual and spatial phenomenology. The second part considers the causes of synesthesia both in terms of candidate neural mechanisms and the distal influences that shape this: genetic differences in developmental synesthesia and plasticity following sensory loss in acquired synesthesia. The final part considers developmental synesthesia as an individual difference in cognition and summarizes evidence of its influence on perception, imagery, memory, art/creativity, and numeracy.