Synesthesia

A recent topic discussed in a third year class I was teaching was a condition known as "Synesthesia".

The word synesthesia is derived from the ancient Greek "together" and "sensation". Synesthesia is a neurologically based condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic and involuntary experiences in a second pathway.

The most studied and most common form of synesthesia is known as Grapheme-Colour Synesthesia, where letters or numbers appear to be inheritantly coloured. An example of how a person with this condition may perceive letters and numbers is shown below:


Interestingly synesthesia runs strongly in families and can also be reported by people during a seizure related to temporal lobe epilepsy, or in people who have had a stroke, or in people who suffer from blindness or deafness.

Apparently over 60 types of synesthesia have been reported, including Ordinal Linguistic Personification where ordered sequences (such as numbers or letters) have a distinct personality. Smells and sounds can also be linked with visual stimuli!

Recent neuroanatomical studies have shown that brain regions which process certain sensory modalities have increased connections to other cortical representations-in other words, their brains have additional connections which link 2 different senses together. So not only is this condition inheritently interesting, research into synesthesia may provide insights into cognitive and perceptual processes and pathways in the human brain.

Synesthesia can also provide insights into how language has developed and into the cognitive processes of learning and memory.

Public research event-Perth Western Australia

Coming up on Monday, November 28th in Perth is a research forum open to the general public. The forum will showcase the research of the Neurotrauma Research Program which is a WA State Government funded program for WA Neuroscientists, including me!
This Public Forum is a half-day event and will be held at the University of Western Australia from 1 till 5pm.
They also hold regular meetings throughout the year that the public and research community are welcome to attend.

A brief introduction to dementia

Dementia has been a core research interest for me since I began my research career. I have always been facinated by how our brains actually work, but as I started to learn about brain dysfunction during my uni studies, I became hooked.
I suppose what that draws me most to dementia research is that the process of dementia destroys many of the things that we consider make us "human". Dementia is a broad term used to describe a progressive decline in brain function. This can affect all the processes that occur within our brains, often without us being consciously aware of them! Therefore, dementia can affect learning and memory, motor functioning, the executive functioning of the brain and our sense of social and cultural norms.
There are many, many causes of dementia, some of which can be reversed- for example, certain vitamin deficiencies.
Unfortunately, for most causes of dementia, there are no effective treatments or cures to date. And, we still do not understand the causes of the many types of dementia.
Many people sometimes confuse Alzheimer's disease with dementia. This is probably because Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia around the world. Many people have probably heard of Alzheimer's, unfortunately, this is because the prevalence of the disease is increasing. It is generally accepted that this increase is due to the ageing population- the fact that we are, on average living longer. And as age is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's, the incidence of the disease and the impact of this terrible disorder on our community is only going to rise.
However, many people don't realise that Alzheimer's disease not only strikes the elderly in our community-it is not merely a disease of old-age.
I will post some more facts and figures about dementia and Alzheimer's in the coming days, it is important that awareness is raised as this set of neurodegenerative diseases pose a major public health, economic and social issue. If you want some more information in the meantime, the Alzheimer's Australia website is a great place to start. Alzheimer's Australia performs a vital role in dementia advocacy and the website is a fantastic resource for dementia sufferers and their families.

Welcome to my brain spot!

Hi there,
My name is Kristyn and I'm a Neuroscience researcher based in Perth, Western Australia.
This is my first attempt at blogging and I'm excited about sharing my insights about the inner workings of the brain, my experiences as an early career researcher and juggling my family and career responsibilities and goals!
I'll be posting interesting research updates, particularly about brain health, ageing, injury and disease, along with stories about scientific meetings and conferences that I attend.
I hope my musing inspire you to treasure your brain and find out more about this most amazing biological entity.