Thursday, August 23, 2012

Five-Fold Synaesthesia

No doubt you have heard of Synaesthesia. You might even be a synaesthete yourself. Synaesthesia is a condition in which the stimulation of one sense prompts a reaction in another sense. Neuropsychologist A. Luria, a famous neuropsychologist, diagnosed an especially strong form of synaesthesia (five-fold synaesthesia) in a Russian mnemonist named Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky. Reportedly, the stimulation of one sense resulted in a reaction in every other sense. For example, if Solomon heard a musical tone played he would immediately see a color, touch would trigger a taste sensation, and so on. (Luria, Aleksandr Romanovich. 1987. The mind of a mnemonist: a little book about a vast memory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 31)

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