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Science Friday > Archives > 2000 > July > July 28, 2000: Hour Two: Synaesthesia / Sense of Touch Imagine reaching out your hand and running it along the edge of a table. You feel its sharp corners; perhaps there is a smooth--yet just a little rough-- piece of paper sitting on the table as well. You can tell the cool hardness of a sheet of glass from the warmth of a metal railing in the sun.
Thousands of receptors for touch work together to help provide the brain with information about the outside world. Sometimes, a touch is noxious, and is identified by specialized receptors as a source of pain. Regardless of whether a touch is good or bad, a signal travels from sensors in the skin through nerves to the spinal cord and the brain, where it is decoded and interpreted. Scientists are working to understand just how sensations are experienced and interpreted - and in this hour of Science Friday, we'll speak with some of them. We'll also talk with a researcher investigating an unusual type of sensation called synaesthesia -- a condition in which a person interprets a signal from one of the senses with another sense entirely. Synaesthetics may "hear" colors, "feel" tastes, or "see" sounds. In a case reported in this week's edition of the journal Nature, a woman called C experienced numbers as colors. We'll find out more. Call in with your questions at 1-800-989-8255.
Guests: Mandayam A. Srinivasan, Ph.D. Kenneth L. Casey, M.D.
Books/Articles Discussed: Related Links:
Produced By: Charles Bergquist |
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