Description

Synaesthesia, affecting approximately four percent of the population, involves a blending of sensory experiences, such as perceving colours upon seeing letters or weekdays. While some explanations connect synaesthesia to conditions like autism spectrum disorder, we propose a different perspective. Synaesthesia may exemplify the brain's adaptive strategies for navigating and understanding the environment. This suggests that synaesthetic experiences could be indicative of broader cognitive processing strategies linked to expertise and how we build and develop categories. Furthermore, it implies that other phenomena such as prosopdysgnosia, aphantasia, phonoagnosia, etc. may similarly reflect unique perceptual strategies, challenging the folk psychology assumptions, as individual differences in how people experience the environment may vary greatly.
Period16 May 2024
Held atFlorida Gulf Coast University, United States
Degree of RecognitionLocal