Semantic Mechanisms May Be Responsible for Developing Synesthesia
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Frontiers - Publisher Connector HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY ARTICLE published: 19 August 2014 HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00509 Semantic mechanisms may be responsible for developing synesthesia Aleksandra Mroczko-Wa˛sowicz 1* and Danko Nikoli´c 2,3,4,5 1 Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 2 Ernst Strüngmann Institute (ESI) for Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany 3 Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Frankfurt, Germany 4 Department of Neurophysiology, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany 5 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Edited by: Currently, little is known about how synesthesia develops and which aspects of Beat Meier, University of Bern, synesthesia can be acquired through a learning process. We review the increasing Switzerland evidence for the role of semantic representations in the induction of synesthesia, and Reviewed by: Karsten Specht, University of argue for the thesis that synesthetic abilities are developed and modified by semantic Bergen, Norway mechanisms. That is, in certain people semantic mechanisms associate concepts with Berit Brogaard, University of perception-like experiences—and this association occurs in an extraordinary way. This Missouri, USA phenomenon can be referred to as “higher” synesthesia or ideasthesia. The present *Correspondence: analysis suggests that synesthesia develops during childhood and is being enriched further Aleksandra Mroczko-Wa˛sowicz, Institute of Philosophy of Mind and throughout the synesthetes’ lifetime; for example, the already existing concurrents may be Cognition, National Yang-Ming adopted by novel inducers or new concurrents may be formed.
[Show full text]