ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper was to assess the genuineness of a case of phoneme color synesthesia (VA) by evaluating the influence of several psycholinguistic levels with different stimuli (isolated vowels, nonsense syllables, and words). Results demonstrate the robustness of the synesthesia no matter what the type of stimuli. To explore how this form of synesthesia manifested itself in everyday conversation, interviews were also conducted. VA reported that, in the context of conversation, phonemes still evoked colors that she had to translate in order to access the meaning. She also reported that her mental representations were multisensorial and that the verbal dimension was almost non-existent. We address several implications of this phoneme color synesthesia: the atypical speech perception that it implies, the cognitive cost of this stable system, and its relation to a specific cognitive functioning.
Subject(s)
Perceptual Disorders , Speech Perception , Female , Humans , Synesthesia , Psycholinguistics , Cognition , Color Perception/physiology , ColorABSTRACT
Autistic individuals are often described as thinking in pictures. The aim of this study was to investigate the phenomenological characteristics of mental representations and inner experiences of autistic individuals. A total of 39 autistic adults and 80 control adults answered an online questionnaire. Autistic participants reported a more frequent use of visual mental representations than controls for different types of everyday situations. Moreover, autistic individuals defined their visual mental representations as more detailed than control participants. Furthermore, when describing their inner experiences, autistic participants used perceptive visual themes whereas control participants relied more on the description of events and memories. Our results support the hypothesis that some autistic individuals indeed "think in pictures". We discuss the impact of such a visual way of thinking in daily life.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/psychology , Thinking , Visual Perception/physiology , Adolescent , Adult , Case-Control Studies , Humans , Middle Aged , Young AdultABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of topographical memory impairment following posterior cerebral artery infarctions (PCAI) and define its anatomical correlations. METHODS: We recruited 15 patients (mean duration of 4 months postinfarct). We administered 2 sets of experimental tests to assess topographical memory: one set included 5 computerized tasks (CompT) and the other set consisted of one ecological topographical orientation test (EcolT) that included 4 tasks (i.e., map drawing, picture recognition and ordering, backward path). Fifteen healthy participants served as controls. Patients and controls underwent a volumetric T1 MRI brain scan. Brain lesions in patients were segmented, normalized, and correlated with performance. RESULTS: Topographical memory impairments were evidenced in patients with PCAI using both group and individual analyses (50%), with more severe outcomes in patients with PCAI in the right hemisphere. CompT and EcolT were highly correlated, but the ecological test was more sensitive in revealing topographical memory impairments. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping demonstrated that 2 regions located in the cuneus and the calcarine sulcus correlated significantly with behavioral performance. CONCLUSIONS: Topographical memory disorders following PCAI are reported in 50% of the patient population. Our results demonstrate the importance of developing and using dedicated batteries of topographical memory tests, in particular real-life tests, to identify such deficits.
