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SUMMARY:Illusory multisensory interactions in synaesthesia - Gary Bargary\
 , Institute of Neuroscience\, University of Dublin
DTSTART:20070522T120000Z
DTEND:20070522T130000Z
UID:TALK7430@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Cordula Becker
DESCRIPTION:Synaesthesia is a rare heritable condition in which normal sen
 sory stimulation gives rise to abnormal additional experiences. Many diffe
 rent types of synaesthesia exist\; the most common varieties involve perce
 ption of a particular colour in response to specific graphemes\, musical n
 otes or time-units. Previous work (Barnett et al.\, in press) has shown th
 at different types of synaesthesia can run in the same family suggesting t
 hat a common genetic mechanism underlies all forms of synaesthesia. How ex
 actly synaesthesia arises from its genetic endowment is unknown\, but all 
 contemporary models of synaesthesia agree that there is additional communi
 cation between certain cortical areas in synaesthetes. These models disagr
 ee however\, concerning the nature (functional/structural)\, specificity (
 unique mechanism/common to us all but enhanced) and location (in relation 
 to the processing hierarchy) of this additional communication or cross-tal
 k. I will present results from a number of audiovisual experiments carried
  out on synaesthetes examining such issues as the specificity and location
  of the abnormal cross-talk. For example\, do synaesthetes show enhanced c
 ommunication between the senses in general\, reflective of a broader pheno
 type? Is synaesthesia mediated by lower level sensory information or does 
 it depend on more higher level perceptual processes? These results have im
 plications for neurodevelopmental models of synaesthesia. \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room (ground floor)\, Craik-Marshall Building
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