Synesthesia: The Key to Understanding Language, Metaphor and Abstract Thought V. S. Ramachandran Center for Brain and Cognition University of California, San Diego V. S. Ramachandran Center for Brain and Cognition University of California, San Diego

The Four Key Questions 1) Is synesthesia real? 2) Is it a genuine sensory phenomenon or a cognitive one? 3) What are the precise brain mechanisms? 4) What are its precise broader implications (i.e., what’s the big deal)? 1) Is synesthesia real? 2) Is it a genuine sensory phenomenon or a cognitive one? 3) What are the precise brain mechanisms? 4) What are its precise broader implications (i.e., what’s the big deal)?

The Seven Pieces of the Puzzle 1) Runs in families 2) Angular gyrus and dyscalculia 3) More common in artists & poets 4) Synthesthetic metaphors 5) Increased emotional reactions 6) Correlation with TLE 7) Evolution of language 1) Runs in families 2) Angular gyrus and dyscalculia 3) More common in artists & poets 4) Synthesthetic metaphors 5) Increased emotional reactions 6) Correlation with TLE 7) Evolution of language

Phenomenology 1) The Martian Color Effect and qualia 2) Patchy colors 3) Letter precedence effect 4) Apparent motion 1) The Martian Color Effect and qualia 2) Patchy colors 3) Letter precedence effect 4) Apparent motion

Some Striking Facts! color-blind synesthetes imagining numbers

Galton’s Number Lines: real or bogus?

Number Line

SYNESTHESIA 1) genes 2) brain anatomy 3) perceptual psychophysics 4) metaphor, abstract thought, Shakespeare “hierarchical reductionism: NOT bad reductionism”

Neural Basis of Abstraction

Theories of Language Evolution 1) Wallace: Divine Intervention 2) Chomsky: Emergent physical properties 3) Gould: Specific manifestation of a more general purpose mechanism, such as thinking 4) Pinker: A mechanism evolved through natural selection as a specific adaptation for communication (i.e. “adaptationism”) 1) Wallace: Divine Intervention 2) Chomsky: Emergent physical properties 3) Gould: Specific manifestation of a more general purpose mechanism, such as thinking 4) Pinker: A mechanism evolved through natural selection as a specific adaptation for communication (i.e. “adaptationism”)

Theories of Language Evolution 1) Wallace: Divine Intervention 2) Chomsky: Emergent physical properties 3) Gould: Specific manifestation of a more general purpose mechanism, such as thinking 4) Pinker: A mechanism evolved through natural selection as a specific adaptation for communication (i.e. “adaptationism”) 5) Ramachandran/Hubbard: Synesthetic bootstrapping theory of language 1) Wallace: Divine Intervention 2) Chomsky: Emergent physical properties 3) Gould: Specific manifestation of a more general purpose mechanism, such as thinking 4) Pinker: A mechanism evolved through natural selection as a specific adaptation for communication (i.e. “adaptationism”) 5) Ramachandran/Hubbard: Synesthetic bootstrapping theory of language