Synesthesia: a return to the body
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/ths-2013-0007Keywords
synesthesia, neurophenomenology, emotion, consciousness, cognitionAbstract
Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon whose nature and etiology remain unknown. In this paper, I apply the neurophenomenological perspective to reflect on the very nature of inducers and concurrents, including their perceptual and conceptual dimensions and their stability over time. Additionally, I analyze the role of attention and its influence over synesthesia, which contributes to the difficulties that we, synesthetes, find when sharing our personal experiences with non-synesthetes. Finally, I expose some examples of the current neuroscientific data and propose some insights into the embodied character of synesthesia, stressing the key role of its emotional component. I conclude describing the clinical applications of the findings in the field of synesthesia and their implications for the understanding of cognition in general.
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