title: Seeing mathematics: perceptual experience and brain activity in acquired synesthesia.
abstract: We studied the patient JP who has exceptional abilities to draw complex geometrical images by hand and a form of acquired synesthesia for mathematical formulas and objects, which he perceives as geometrical figures. JP sees all smooth curvatures as discrete lines, similarly regardless of scale. We carried out two preliminary investigations to establish the perceptual nature of synesthetic experience and to investigate the neural basis of this phenomenon. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, image-inducing formulas produced larger fMRI responses than non-image inducing formulas in the left temporal, parietal and frontal lobes. Thus our main finding is that the activation associated with his experience of complex geometrical images emerging from mathematical formulas is restricted to the left hemisphere.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Philosophy and , Center for Neurodynamics, University of Missouri , St. Louis , MO , USA.
authors.forename: Berit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brogaard
authors.forename: Simo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vanni
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Silvanto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D000080311:Synesthesia; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*