V.S. Ramachandran at Beyond Belief 2007 Part 4

[PJW1269]

We owe SO much to scientists such as this. So many things that have become commonplace in our lives started with someone being curious and putting in the time and effort to figure things out. Science Rocks!

Thanks for posting this!

B^)

[Angry256]

This is a very good lecture, i have spectral content to color synesthesia "on sound" and im actually in the position to use it as a tool too. This man is very good at brining the point across. And my credits to that!

[coldarc]

chemicals don´t produce perception they confuse it. light contain geometry triagles squares pentagons hexagon tetrahedron and many more complex ones. your brain also contain these patterns. when they interfere with the outside pattern the mix create your perception of the outside world. each brain halves receives sligtly different parts of these pattern and mix them together in one coherent image. thats why you cant draw a perfect image.

[QCreyton]

i'd love to get hold of Ramachandran and pick his brain about a few topics.

[ajarnguy]

Oh crap.

I'm good at punning...

What does this mean?

[crakmeister]

@ajarnguy

it means you're smart enough to get the joke.

[gavanduffy123]

I cant sat that I have synesthesia

but when i was younger I uesd to assioate the word infinitty with balogina the food. later in life I thought that maybe subconcisiouly I knew that infinity was bullshit.

[statickk14]

Marco Polo of the Brain....great stuff!!

[JonahTorn]

What about synethesia that takes place between kinesthesia and sight. Like feeling someone standing several feet away. And what if the synesthetic experience waxes and wanes rather than remaining constant and with the same intensity. Is synesthesia more likely in people who have enhanced sensory sensitivity?

[statickk14]

I guess Ramachandran is the person to ask, I am not able to answer your questions.

[crakmeister]

@JonahTorn

yes, yes, if you look around apparently there are all kinds of quirky ticks in all sorts of people that could represent this sort of thing. in fact, some folks might not even 'see' anything at all. the sensory 'crosswire' could make you feel things with taste, taste things you feel, any sort of mix of any sense. it all computes in the pinky brain.

[JonahTorn]

Sometimes Tourettes is confusing because I feel a sensation when people are near me on the side they are on, but I feel similair ensations when I have tics in resonce to people and there movements that subside or change when I tic, so I can't tell when I do not react with a tic if the tic was suppressed by focus (which can happen as a by product of focus without the intention or thought of blocking a tic) or if I feel people when I see them across the room as if they taouched me.

[JonahTorn]

I ment to spell touched not "taouched".

[ooglebydoogleby]

my son is autistic and i would love to know if synesthesia is more common in autistic people. ime geusing its not although that could be my bias towards interpretation of selective behavour. compultion could be related to limmiting posibillities not as a result of limmited posibillities.

[crakmeister]

@ooglebydoogleby

if you research autism a little bit, it seems likely that there MIGHT?  be a connection with autism. high-functioning autistic folks tend to describe things like 'silence feeling like cool morning dew' or may experience endorphins (pleasure) as a response to a compulsive (compulsion) irrational behavior.

[crakmeister]

@crakmeister

and then, see things based on the pleasure response that 'don't exist'. logically, high functioning autistic folks would have an experience comparable enough to others that they can figure out the patterns of sensory response to appear and function like other people.

[ooglebydoogleby]

most people experience physical sensations in response to sensory inputs, that is why we empathise. a theory that lactose has an effect on the autistic brain somewhat similar to heroin which as you are probably aware inhibits endorphine production. I think most of the theories of autism are over egged although i don't doubt that there are some biochemical variations particular to autistic people. i tend to think of high functioning autistic people as alternativly able rather than disabled.