Pupillometry of Grapheme-Color Synaesthesia

Pupil diameters of color-grapheme synaesthetes were measured with an infrared eye-tracker while Stroop-like alphanumeric symbols were passively viewed. Pupils dilated more when synaesthetes viewed incongruently-colored symbols than congruently-colored symbols or symbols printed in the standard black ink. The results show that the physiological measure of pupillary diameter can be used as a marker of the synaesthetic experience.

[1]  D. Smilek,et al.  Synaesthetic photisms guide attention , 2003, Brain and Cognition.

[2]  Jason B. Mattingley,et al.  Unconscious priming eliminates automatic binding of colour and alphanumeric form in synaesthesia , 2001, Nature.

[3]  M. Just,et al.  The intensity dimension of thought: pupillometric indices of sentence processing. , 1993, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[4]  E. Hess,et al.  Pupil Size in Relation to Mental Activity during Simple Problem-Solving , 1964, Science.

[5]  Daniel Smilek,et al.  Synaesthetic Photisms Influence Visual Perception , 2001, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[6]  Daniel Smilek,et al.  Synesthetic Color Experiences Influence Memory , 2002, Psychological science.

[7]  B. Laeng,et al.  Does Color Synesthesia Pose a Paradox for Early-Selection Theories of Attention? , 2004, Psychological science.

[8]  M. Masson,et al.  Using confidence intervals in within-subject designs , 1994, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[9]  I. E. Loewenfeld,et al.  The Pupil: Anatomy, Physiology, and Clinical Applications , 1999 .

[10]  A. Luria,et al.  An Extraordinary Gift. (Book Reviews: The Mind of a Mnemonist. A Little Book about a Vast Memory) , 1968 .

[11]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[12]  E. T. Bullmore,et al.  Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken words , 2002, Nature Neuroscience.

[13]  V. Ramachandran,et al.  Synaesthesia? A window into perception, thought and language , 2001 .

[14]  Randolph Blake,et al.  The perceptual reality of synesthetic colors , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  D Kahneman,et al.  Pupil Diameter and Load on Memory , 1966, Science.

[16]  Kevin T. Dann Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synaesthesia and the Search for Transcendental Knowledge , 1998 .

[17]  L Weiskrantz,et al.  Differential pupillary constriction and awareness in the absence of striate cortex. , 1999, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[18]  F. Svartdal,et al.  Consistency in synesthetic experience to vowels and consonants: five case studies. , 1989, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[19]  J. Dabbs Testosterone and Pupillary Response to Auditory Sexual Stimuli , 1997, Physiology & Behavior.