Multisensory Perception

Chapter 12

How do crossmodal correspondences and multisensory processes relate to synesthesia?

David Brang ¹ , and Vilayanur S. Ramachandran ^{2       1} University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States      ² Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory modality evokes additional (usually) sensory experiences in an unrelated modality (e.g., sounds evoking colors). Much has been written about the definition of synesthesia, but as it remains a behaviorally defined phenomenon, definitional requirements are premature at this early stage (indeed, precision of word use often follows, ...