Skip Navigation


Brain Advance Access first published online on November 21, 2008
This version published online on November 28, 2008
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awn304
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
132/1/65    most recent
awn304v3
awn304v2
awn304v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Weiss, P. H.
Right arrow Articles by Fink, G. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Weiss, P. H.
Right arrow Articles by Fink, G. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Grapheme-colour synaesthetes show increased grey matter volumes of parietal and fusiform cortex

Peter H. Weiss1,2 and Gereon R. Fink1,2,3

1Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neuroscience and Biophysics—Medicine, 2Brain Imaging Centre West, Research Center Jülich, Jülich and 3Department of Neurology, Cologne University Hospital, Cologne, Germany

Correspondence to: Dr Peter H. Weiss, Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neuroscience and Biophysics—Medicine, Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany E-mail: P.H.Weiss{at}fz-juelich.de

In synaesthesia, stimulation of a sensory modality triggers abnormal additional perceptions. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used in 18 grapheme-colour synaesthetes to investigate the neuro-anatomical basis of their abnormal perceptions. More specifically, we tested the hypothesis that in synaesthesia altered connectivity in temporo-occipital and parietal areas may be associated with grey matter (GM) changes. The data reveal increased GM volumes in fusiform and intraparietal cortices. These findings are consistent with the two-stage model of grapheme-colour synaesthesia implying cross-activation at the level of the fusiform gyrus (FG) and ‘hyperbinding’ at the level of the parietal cortex. The observed structural differences in grapheme-colour synaesthetes with abnormal additional perceptions may also shed some light on the neural bases of abnormal perceptions in neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Key Words: voxel-based morphometry; parietal cortex; fusiform gyrus; colour area; V4/V8, grapheme area (VWFA)

Abbreviations: CIP, caudal intraparietal area; DTI, diffusion tensor imaging; FG, fusiform gyrus; GM, grey matter; IPS, intraparietal sulcus; MNI, Montrael Neurological Institute; ROI, Region of interest; VBM, Voxel-based morphometry; WM, white matter

Received March 2, 2008. Revised October 13, 2008. Accepted October 15, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.