I thought readers of bionet.neuroscience might be interested in the
second edition of a neuroscience classic. For more information, please
visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262032961/ Thanks!
Best,
David
Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses
second edition
Richard E. Cytowic, M.D.
Most people link senses only by way of metaphoric speech, saying, for
example, that red is a "warm" color or that a certain cheese tastes
"sharp." But a minority of individuals, known as synesthetes, experience
the phrase "I see what you're saying" as literally true. In addition to
studying the phenomenon for its own sake, neuroscientists are interested
in what synesthesia might reveal about consciousness, the working of
nonsynesthetic brains, subjective-objective relations, and the
relationship between reason and emotion.
In this classic text, Richard Cytowic quickly disposes of earlier
criticisms that the phenomenon cannot be "real," demonstrating that it
is indeed brain-based. Following a historical introduction, he lays out
the phenomenology of synesthesia in detail and gives criteria for
clinical diagnosis and an objective "test of genuineness." He reviews
theories and experimental procedures to localize the plausible level of
the neuraxis at which synesthesia operates. In a discussion of brain
development and neural plasticity, he addresses the possible ubiquity of
neonatal synesthesia, the construction of metaphor, and whether everyone
is unconsciously synesthetic. In the closing chapters, Cytowic considers
synesthetes' personalities, the apparent frequency of the trait among
artists, and the subjective and illusory nature of what we take to be
objective reality, particularly in the visual realm.
The second edition has been extensively revised, reflecting the recent
flood of interest in synesthesia and new knowledge of human brain
function and development. More than two-thirds of the material is new.
Richard E. Cytowic, M.D., is the founder of Capitol Neurology, a private
clinic in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Man Who Tasted Shapes
(MIT Press, 1998) and The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology (MIT
Press, 1996).
7 x 10, 391 pp., 103 illus., cloth, ISBN 0-262-03296-1
A Bradford Book
