[accessibleimage] correction: Re: more "food for thought" on the subject of the interrelationship between all our senses.

Apologies, I sent the post out too quickly, before updating my message. I
have shared this one with a lot of people since it was aired. The broadcast
was a few years ago, but I did listen to the archived links a few weeks ago.

Best,

Sylvie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kaizen Program" <kaizen_esl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 6:47 AM
Subject: Fw: more "food for thought" on the subject of the interrelationship
between all our senses.


Here is some more "food for thought" on the subject of the interrelationship
between all our senses. Below I have pasted some information from a BBC
Radio web page related to two programs they aired a year ago. I have also
given the links to the RealPlayer  versions of the two programs. You can
just paste them into your internet browser. They are still active. I
listened to both of them myself yesterday. They are worth the time it takes
to listen. I think this kind of material is relevant because it makes us
think more deeply about
how we can teach in ways that enlarge everyone's understanding and
enjoyment of the world, and highlights the importance of making sure that
all of us, including children and adults with visual impairments, get the
opportunity to learn through all our senses, and thereby learn more
thoroughly and more meaningfully.

And all of this is a long overdue challenge to the idea that most knowledge
is obtained through vision.

Even without all of this information on the interrelationship between our
various senses, the idea that most knowledge is gained through vision needs
to be balanced by the understanding that human language (which is primarily
based on, and pivoted around, our hearing) is  usually considered to be the
prerequisite and main tool of culture. Language is integrally connected with
body language, but body language (as in sign language) isn't the primary way
most of us communicate with each other. (For example, a completely blind
person at a social event requires less specialized communications knowledge
and skill from the people with functional vision there than a completely
deaf person requires from those with functional hearing there.)  Yet body
motions seem to be quite integral to communications and learning about the
world too.

All of this isn't to say that vision is not important in learning, but that
it may be related in a more complex, more flexible way that allows for the
development of diverse ways of gaining knowledge about the world through
combinations of what senses a person has. So, if a child or adult does not
have vision, they can learn about the world to the same degree as a fully
sighted person, but not exactly in the same way that a child or adult with
fully functioning vision does. But, those with what is defined as fully
functioning vision may also have different degrees to which they can learn
about the world by focusing on this one sense. And we also need to take into
account how people learn to learn from their visual sense. And we need to
learn how to provide enough multi-sensory learning opportunities so that
everyone has some sort of context in which they can maximize their learning
about the world...

I think that this perspective also explains why some blind people have a
very good sense of direction and spatial relations, and can easily identify
big and small objects and compare them with each other, while some others
(equally intelligent, have great difficulty learning about directions and
spatial relationships, and have difficulty conceptualizing big and small
objects and comparing them with each other.

I am looking forward to reading your comments.

Sylvie

***

Hearing Colours, Eating Sounds 12/11/2002

BBC - Radio 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/hearingcolours.shtml

Text only:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/education/betsie/parser.pl

Program 1, RealPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/hearing_20021112.ram

On the page the link says:

Listen again to Programme 1

Program 2, RealPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/hearing_20021119.ram

On the page the link says:

Listen again to Programme 2

As many as one in 2000 people has an extraordinary condition in which the
five senses intermingle. This major two part series reveals how synaesthesia
is
changing our understanding of the world of neuroscience.

'Saturday'

How one synaesthete sees 'Saturday'

We all wonder at some point whether other people experience their
surroundings in the same way we do. Do they hear the same things and see the
same colours?
People with synaesthesia really do experience the world differently. New
scientific research shows that the condition can take a variety of forms.
Some
see colours and patterns when they hear music or words. Others 'taste'
words. People with the most common form of synaesthesia - or 'syn' as they
sometimes
refer to it - perceive words, letters and numbers as distinct colours. Most
synaesthetes find their condition enriching. But for others, it can be
unsettling
- sounds produce uncomfortable colours, words provoke odd tastes. For
neuroscientists, modern technology is at last making it possible to study
synaesthesia,
and revealing in the process a great deal about how the brain processes
sensory information in all of us.

In a two part series, writer and broadcaster Georgina Ferry explores the
condition of synaesthesia, and the impact it is having on the way in which
scientists
understand perception. Each programme features people who live with this
fascinating condition, as well as psychologists and neuroscientists
conducting
groundbreaking research.

1. Pale yellow Cs, turquoise Thursdays
    and wine-flavoured Vs

The programme explores the astonishing range of synaesthetic characteristics
revealed by current case studies of people with the condition. It looks at
the different forms which synaesthesia takes and examines the wealth of
sensory data now accessible to scientists. Examples of these case studies
include
James Wannerton who tastes spoken words - the flavours of words are very
specific: mince, apricots, tomato soup, even earwax; and Jane Mackay who
sees shapes and colours when she hears music and then paints what she sees.

Studies now reveal that there is a high ratio of women to men with
synaesthesia and that the condition may be inherited - one famous instance
of this was
the writer Vladimir Nabokov. He married a fellow synaesthete and their son
Dimitri also has synaesthesia. He's one artist who is now thought to have
been
a genuine synaesthete, but there are many who deliberately cultivated a
heightened perception for extra artistic effect: our culture is littered
with poets,
artists and musicians, including Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Kandinsky, Messaien
and Scriabin who have claimed to have synaesthesia. Today, thanks to fMRI
(functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging), neuroscientists are able to prove that
synaesthetic experience is a genuine phenomenon. What's more, this new
evidence is
allowing the scientific community to explore the implications for the way
all of our brains work.

Listen again available after the broadcast

2. Mixed Feelings

This second programme examines the mounting evidence that we all start life
with the potential for synaesthesia. The sensory pathways are ill-defined in
infants, and it is only later in a child's development that the senses are
parcelled out. Scientists are coming to the realisation that we may all have
the capacity for vestigial synaesthesia, even if our sensory pathways have
been separated out as normal. They are finding evidence for this through the
experiences of synaesthetes such as teacher and translator Patricia Duffy
who sees coloured letters and numbers and believes that synaesthesia can be
harnessed
as a memory aid. Results from drug tests show that a synaesthetic experience
can actually be manufactured with the help of artificial stimulants. In some
of us, head trauma or blindness can trigger synaesthetic experiences.
Certainly, there is now evidence that in all of us, the same parts of the
brain are
stimulated by seeing something and by thinking about it. The study of
synaesthesia is providing a combination of results that is pushing the
boundaries
of neuroscience. Evidence from the most recent research is being used to
illuminate the acquisition and processing of language, and may also give
answers
to one of the biggest questions of all - the nature of meaning as it is
represented in the human brain.


Find more information, contacts, links and a quick do-it-yourself
synaesthesia test on Page 2 >>>

Presenter: Georgina Ferry, writer and broadcaster.

Key contributors include: brain scientist Richard Cytowic, neuroscientist
and Psychologist V.S. Ramachandra, Psychologist Jeffrey Gray, synaesthetes
include
the pianist Joseph Long, artist Jane Mackay and translator Patricia Duffy;
the series consultant is neuropsychologist John Harrison

The readers are Hilary Neville and Crawford Logan.

***


Page 2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/education/betsie/parser.pl/0005/www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/hearingcolours2.shtml

HEARING COLOURS, EATING SOUNDS


Why do some people perceive words and numbers as colours?


Tuesdays 12 & 19 November 2002, 9.00-9.30pm

As many as one in 2000 people has an extraordinary condition in which the
five senses intermingle. This major two part series reveals how synaesthesia
is changing our understanding of the world of neuroscience.
Georgina Ferry
Presenter Georgina Ferry

Georgina Ferry comments:

"I became aware of synaesthesia when my mother suddenly announced, a few
years ago, that as a coloured hearing synaesthete she was a subject in one
of the studies organised by Simon Baron-Cohen in Cambridge. She asked if I
and my three siblings would also participate by giving a mouth swab for
genetic analysis. Although I've never had anything that I could identify as
a synaesthetic experience, I agreed; I understand my DNA is currently
sitting in a fridge in Oxford waiting for someone to get round to analysing
it! It transpired that my sister was also a synaesthete but had never
considered there was anything remarkable about it.

"With this family history, I was only too pleased to learn more about the
subject through interviewing synaesthetes and psychologists for this
programme. I was left in no doubt that many people have powerfully augmented
sensory experiences that also have an impact on cognitive skills such as
memory and reasoning. I'm still not sure I know why; is it just a freak
accident of miswiring in the baby brain, or some more subtle genetic
variation in sensitivity to colours, shapes and sounds? Many new lines of
research are now being followed up; it all adds to a picture of the brain
that never ceases to amaze me with the exquisite complexity of its myriad
connections."

A Synaesthete's Experience:

Coloured Words
'When I was 7, I once sketched out the alphabet in the colors each letter
"ought" to be. The letter A, for example, looked right to me if it was
fire-engine red, but if it was not, I felt it was someone else's letter A.'
Martin Goss, USA

Tactile Sounds
'Deeper sounds appear as if they're resonating within me, in different
places of the body; higher pitches like birds outside - slight itch, like
tiny needles plucking on my arms; rain - like soft peas dropping on my chest
and back and arms.'
Jona Markgraft , German

Synaesthetic Perception

If you think you may have 'grapheme-colour' synaesthesia - seeing specific
colours in response to specific letters and numbers - take a look at this
'pop-out' test (courtesy of Ed Hubbard). It's not an acid test for
synaesthesia, but grapheme-colour synaesthetes should quickly be able to
distinguish a shape among the numbers.

How quickly do you see the '2's among the '5's?

Ed Hubbard's 'pop-out' test

Now view the pop-out test as a synaesthete might see it at the bottom of the
page.

More Information:

International Synaesthesia Association

 American Synesthesia Association

 Doctor Hugo - links to many synaesthesia organisations and articles

 James Wannerton

To Volunteer for Synaesthesia Research

UK

 Jamie Ward E-mail: jamie.ward@xxxxxxxxx

 Sue Chopping E-mail: s.chopping@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel: 0207 848 0705

USA

 Richard Cytowic E-mail: Richard@xxxxxxxxxxx

 Ed Hubbard E-mail: edhubbard@xxxxxxxxxxxx

 Sean Day E-mail: daysa@xxxxxxxxxx
Tel: USA (513) 529 - 7106

To be added to the Synaesthesia discussion list
contact Sean Day.

To find out more about Jane's paintings or Joseph's
music visit:
 Jane Mackay or  Joseph Long

Books

 Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing by John Harrison
Oxford University Press - ISBN: 0192632450

 The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard E Cytowic
The MIT Press (A Bradford Book) - ISBN: 0262531526

 Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: how synesthetes color their words by
Patricia Lynne Duffy
W.H. Freeman & Company - ISBN: 0716740885

 Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synesthesia and the Search for Transcendental
Knowledge by Kevin T Dann
Yale University Press - ISBN: 0300066198

Program 1, RealPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/hearing_20021112.ram

Program 2, RealPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/hearing_20021119.ram

Other related posts: