Mirror Touch Synesthesia Case Study

Research by medical scientists shows that synesthetes have high intelligence and are frequently psychics. Psychics in the military related instances where they went through periods of synesthesia during extreme exercises designed in

Upon reviewing the video entitled “Mirror Neurons” by Nova Science now, I gained a better understanding of the the whole mirror neuron system (MNS) and it's functions. In fact, a neuron is defined as “a specialized cell that conducts impulses through the nervous system” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd, 2014. p.41). The difference between a neuron and a mirror neuron is simple, a mirror neuron is defined as “a network of cells that the brain uses to interpret and produce motor actions and emotion-related behavior” (p.99). In my opinion mirror neurons are essential to establishing a human bond, considering they help the human brain translate or connect to one's own actions/behaviors to the actions and behaviors of another person. Mirror neurons help an individual experience empathy, which may assist in an individual's ability to relate to the world.

Lawrence fiddled with a toy while listening to the radio. After the broadcast was over, he softly mumbled something, though he generally kept to himself. I listened closely since his autism typically prevented Lawrence from stringing even two words together. He had recited the entire radio program, virtually word for word, even mimicking the tone of the broadcaster's voice. My jaw dropped. At that moment I knew that I wanted to learn more about Lawrence’s autism condition so that I could help him grow, but I also hoped to dedicate myself to studying the brain both from a physiological and psychological standpoint.

Mirror neurons have been hailed by scientists as the most significant finding in neurology in the past decade, the key to understanding the secrets of human interaction and learning, and as significant to psychology as DNA is to biology. Mirror neurons are a newly-discovered structure of the brain responsible for the firing of neurons during both physical movement and the observation of physical movement. It is these firings during observation of movements that has scientists excited about their relation to learning and interaction. While mirror neurons have been found in both primates and humans, their role in terms of learning and perfecting motor skills is still unclear.

One of the experiments performed on patient H.M. is the star tracing test. Brenda Milner, a neuropsychologist, had H.M. trace a star between two parallel lines, where he could only see his drawing hand in a mirror. With every practice his performance improved (Figure 1), though he always denied having ever done the task before. This experiment led Dr. Milner to believe that there is a distinction between procedural memory and declarative memory, suggesting that the two are stored in dissimilar places.

Graded Mirror therapy is the use of a mirror to reverse image of a body part to the brain.

Memory, in an average person, is far from a perfect video playback. Storing memories requires a process of encoding, storage, and retrieval. For most of us, our memories are limited by the efficiency of storage and the accuracy of retrieval. But for those with savant syndrome and highly superior autobiographical memory, it is theorized that these limitations can be bypassed resulting in extraordinarily accurate or seemingly infinite memory.

Mirrors are being used in places like Iraq by Doctor Jack Tsoa to treat wounded war veterans. The doctor uses the mirror to try and get rid of phantom limb pain. Phantom limb pain can happen when some gets there leg amputated and the nerve endings send messages to the brain telling them that their leg is there and that it hurts.

Daniel has exceptional abilities in multiple subjects. He is a mathematical genius, capable astronomical calculations in the blink of an eye. Daniel is able to do this because he sees numbers unlike any other. To him each number has a color, texture, shape, and feel. He can

The study of synesthesia has grown exponentially over the past few decades and as a result there is some level of ambiguity as to the scope of what defines it. Gail Martino and Lawrence Mark propose that synesthesia can be categorized into strong or weak. The former refers to those who experience “a vivid image in one sensory in response to stimulation in another”, whereas the latter is characterized as “cross-sensory correspondence[s] expressed through language, perceptual similarity and perceptual interactions during information processing” (Martino and Marks, 2001). This view implies that even the subtlest forms of cross-modal interactions that take place in the individual, albeit associating certain sounds to sight, deserve some

Imagine if you had a condition that made you have a different perception on the world than others. How would you react emotionally if you tasted something each time you heard a certain word or even saw colors when you listened to music? “Synesthesia; the neurological phenomenon that couples two or more senses in 4% of the population,” (Cytowic, Richard) can alter your senses to enhance another sense involuntarily (Dickinson, Annie). This means that two of the five senses would associate with each other to be used in sync. The five senses, sight, smell, sound, taste and touch can be used, however in this case, the senses sight and sound are combined and this is called chromesthesia. Synesthetes, those who have chromesthesia, will hear sounds

Research Question: Can mirror therapy performed on the upper and lower extremity of stroke patients improve unilateral visual neglect more than mirror therapy exclusively performed on the upper extremity?

In addition, the sensory neurons are responsible for responding to touch, sound, and light. Thus, the interneurons are responsible for integrating these signals and in return the motor neurons cause a muscle contraction. In this lab, we were able to become familiar with the visual and auditory processing. We were able to do this by determining the reaction time and correlation between visual versus auditory cues and also the reaction time and correlation between right-hand versus left-hand humans. Also, the program that was used to collect the visual and auditory cues was called iWorx physiology kit.

Steve Jobs once said, "You and I have memories longer he road that stretches out ahead". The brain is so detailed and holds so much information in every little area. There are so many things happening in the brain at once, and one of the most fascinating things would be memory. The memory has various abilities that make it so complex, including the memory system, how it functions, and memory retrieval, along with the capacity to memorize certain ideas easier

Once genetic contenders have been identified for cross-activation and disinhibited feedback models, more studies can be done to determine the molecular pathways these genes regulate. For example, animal genetic knock-out or knock-in models can be created to potentially determine the effect of a gene during development. These studies are needed to support or discredit, the pruning hypothesis and its suggested underlying molecular causes: the immune-theory and serotonin-theory. This further research into the underlying causes and mechanism of synesthesia will lead to a better understanding of sensory system development. It will help identify how plasticity leads to subjective perception and what factors in development influence this. Lastly,