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

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Banissy, Michael J.; Stewart, Lauren; Muggleton, N. G.; Griffiths, T. D.; Walsh, V.; Ward, J. and Kanai, R.. 2012. Grapheme-color and tone-color synesthesia is associated with structural brain changes in visual regions implicated in color, form, and motion. Cognitive Neuroscience, 3(1), pp. 29-35. ISSN 1758-8928 [Article]

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Official URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1758892...

Abstract or Description

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.

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Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2011.594499