The Man Who Tasted Shapes

Author : Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262250446
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition written by Richard E. Cytowic and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, or "joined sensation," illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what it means to be human. Richard Cytowic's dinner host apologized, "There aren't enough points on the chicken!" He felt flavor also as a physical shape in his hands, and the chicken had come out "too round." This offbeat comment in 1980 launched Cytowic's exploration into the oddity called synesthesia. He is one of the few world authorities on the subject. Sharing a root with anesthesia ("no sensation"), synesthesia means "joined sensation," whereby a voice, for example, is not only heard but also seen, felt, or tasted. The trait is involuntary, hereditary, and fairly common. It stayed a scientific mystery for two centuries until Cytowic's original experiments led to a neurological explanation—and to a new concept of brain organization that accentuates emotion over reason. That chicken dinner two decades ago led Cytowic to explore a deeper reality that, he argues, exists in everyone but is often just below the surface of awareness (which is why finding meaning in our lives can be elusive). In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, far from being a mere curiosity, illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what is means to be human—a view that turns upside down conventional ideas about reason, emotional knowledge, and self-understanding. This 2003 edition features a new afterword.

Author : Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0262532557
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition written by Richard E. Cytowic and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2003-08-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, or "joined sensation," illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what it means to be human. Richard Cytowic's dinner host apologized, "There aren't enough points on the chicken!" He felt flavor also as a physical shape in his hands, and the chicken had come out "too round." This offbeat comment in 1980 launched Cytowic's exploration into the oddity called synesthesia. He is one of the few world authorities on the subject. Sharing a root with anesthesia ("no sensation"), synesthesia means "joined sensation," whereby a voice, for example, is not only heard but also seen, felt, or tasted. The trait is involuntary, hereditary, and fairly common. It stayed a scientific mystery for two centuries until Cytowic's original experiments led to a neurological explanation—and to a new concept of brain organization that accentuates emotion over reason. That chicken dinner two decades ago led Cytowic to explore a deeper reality that, he argues, exists in everyone but is often just below the surface of awareness (which is why finding meaning in our lives can be elusive). In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, far from being a mere curiosity, illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what is means to be human—a view that turns upside down conventional ideas about reason, emotional knowledge, and self-understanding. This 2003 edition features a new afterword.

Author : Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262516705
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wednesday Is Indigo Blue written by Richard E. Cytowic and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-09-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the extraordinary multisensory phenomenon of synesthesia has changed our traditional view of the brain. A person with synesthesia might feel the flavor of food on her fingertips, sense the letter “J” as shimmering magenta or the number “5” as emerald green, hear and taste her husband's voice as buttery golden brown. Synesthetes rarely talk about their peculiar sensory gift—believing either that everyone else senses the world exactly as they do, or that no one else does. Yet synesthesia occurs in one in twenty people, and is even more common among artists. One famous synesthete was novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who insisted as a toddler that the colors on his wooden alphabet blocks were “all wrong.” His mother understood exactly what he meant because she, too, had synesthesia. Nabokov's son Dmitri, who recounts this tale in the afterword to this book, is also a synesthete—further illustrating how synesthesia runs in families. In Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, pioneering researcher Richard Cytowic and distinguished neuroscientist David Eagleman explain the neuroscience and genetics behind synesthesia's multisensory experiences. Because synesthesia contradicted existing theory, Cytowic spent twenty years persuading colleagues that it was a real—and important—brain phenomenon rather than a mere curiosity. Today scientists in fifteen countries are exploring synesthesia and how it is changing the traditional view of how the brain works. Cytowic and Eagleman argue that perception is already multisensory, though for most of us its multiple dimensions exist beyond the reach of consciousness. Reality, they point out, is more subjective than most people realize. No mere curiosity, synesthesia is a window on the mind and brain, highlighting the amazing differences in the way people see the world.

Author : Dr. Guy Leschziner
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250272378
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Man Who Tasted Words written by Dr. Guy Leschziner and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Man Who Tasted Words, Guy Leschziner leads readers through the senses and how, through them, our brain understands or misunderstands the world around us. Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning—the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance—is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves and, in most cases, completely out of our control. In The Man Who Tasted Words, neurologist Guy Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have played havoc, not only with their view of the world, but with their relationships as well. The cases Leschziner shares in The Man Who Tasted Words are extreme, but they are also human, and teach us how our lives and what we perceive as reality are both ultimately defined by the complexities of our nervous systems.

Author : Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262532556
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition written by Richard E. Cytowic and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-08-11 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, or "joined sensation," illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what it means to be human. Richard Cytowic's dinner host apologized, "There aren't enough points on the chicken!" He felt flavor also as a physical shape in his hands, and the chicken had come out "too round." This offbeat comment in 1980 launched Cytowic's exploration into the oddity called synesthesia. He is one of the few world authorities on the subject. Sharing a root with anesthesia ("no sensation"), synesthesia means "joined sensation," whereby a voice, for example, is not only heard but also seen, felt, or tasted. The trait is involuntary, hereditary, and fairly common. It stayed a scientific mystery for two centuries until Cytowic's original experiments led to a neurological explanation—and to a new concept of brain organization that accentuates emotion over reason. That chicken dinner two decades ago led Cytowic to explore a deeper reality that, he argues, exists in everyone but is often just below the surface of awareness (which is why finding meaning in our lives can be elusive). In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, far from being a mere curiosity, illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what is means to be human—a view that turns upside down conventional ideas about reason, emotional knowledge, and self-understanding. This 2003 edition features a new afterword.

Author : Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461235421
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Synesthesia written by Richard E. Cytowic and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Synesthesia comes from the Greek syn (meaning union) and aisthesis (sensation), literally interpreted as a joining of the senses. Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information from one sense is joined or accompanies a perception in another. Dr. Cytowic reports extensive research into the physical, psychological, neural, and familial background of a group of synesthets. His findings form the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms that underlie this remarkable perceptual experience. His research demonstrates that this rare condition is brain-based and perceptual and not mind-based, as is the case with memory or imagery. Synesthesia offers a unique and detailed study of a condition which has confounded scientists for more than 200 years.

Author : Maureen Seaberg
Publisher : Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN 13 : 1601636679
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tasting the Universe written by Maureen Seaberg and published by Red Wheel/Weiser. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Explores a dimension of synesthesia long encountered in reports of synesthetes: its relation to mystical and artistic vision . . . fascinating accounts.”—Patricia Lynne Duffy, author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens What happens when a journalist turns her lens on a mystery happening in her own life? Maureen Seaberg did just that and lived for a year exploring her synesthesia. The wondrous brain trait is often described as blended senses, but for Maureen, synesthesia is not an idle “brain tick” that can be explained away by science (although it does offer some important clues). It is a unique ability to tap into and reveal a greater creative universe and even the divine. Join her as she visits top neuroscientists, rock stars, violinists, other synesthetes, philosophers, savants, quantum physicists and even Tibetan lamas in her journey toward the truth. Step into Maureen’s shimmering alternate universe as she explores this fascinating subject, combining clear explanations of groundbreaking scientific research with an exploration of deeper spiritual truths. “Tasting the Universe is not only the brilliant writing of a top, professional journalist looking in on a strange but romantic phenomena, but it is the writing of a person who could embrace the feelings of those she interviews, because author Seaberg herself possesses this remarkable gift of synesthesia. I predict when you pick up this book, you will be unable to put it down, as it will open up for you a whole new world in our universe.”—The Amazing Kreskin

Author : Wendy Mass
Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13 : 0316048690
Total Pages : 143 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Mango-Shaped Space written by Wendy Mass and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2008-11-16 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning book from the author of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life and The Candymakers for fans for of Wonder and Counting by Sevens Mia Winchell has synesthesia, the mingling of perceptions whereby a person can see sounds, smell colors, or taste shapes. Forced to reveal her condition, she must look to herself to develop an understanding and appreciation of her gift in this coming-of-age novel.

Author : Ophelia Deroy
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199688281
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sensory Blending written by Ophelia Deroy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Synaesthesia is, in the words of the cognitive neuroscientist Cytowic, a strange sensory blending. Synaesthetes report seeing colours when hearing sounds or proper names, or they experience tastes when reading the names of subway stations. How do these rare cases relate to other more common examples where sensory experiences get mixed - cases like mirror-touch, personification, cross-modal mappings, and drug experiences? Are we all more or less synaesthetes, and does this mean that we are all subjects of crossmodal illusions? Could some apparently strange sensory cases give us an insight into how perception works? Recent research on the causes and prevalence of synaesthesia raises new questions regarding the links between these cases, and the unity of the condition. By bringing together contributions from leading cognitive neuroscientists and philosophers, this volume considers for the first time the broader theoretical lessons arising from such cases of sensory blending, with regard to the nature of perception and consciousness, the boundaries between perception, illusion and imagination, and the communicability and sharing of experiences.

Author : Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher : TarcherPerigee
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Man who Tasted Shapes written by Richard E. Cytowic and published by TarcherPerigee. This book was released on 1993 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cytowic examines the world of synesthetes and the nature of memory, the roots of creativity, the feasibility of artificial intelligence, and the importance of subjectivity in medical research.