Journal Article

PreJuSER-21471

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Intrinsic network connectivity reflects consistency of synesthetic experiences

Dovern, A.FZJ* ; Fink, G. R.FZJ* ; Fromme, A. ; Wohlschlaeger, A. ; Weiss, P. H.FZJ*

2012
Soc. Washington, DC

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/20565  doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5401-11.2012

Abstract: Studying cognitive processes underlying synesthesia, a condition in which stimulation of one sensory modality automatically leads to abnormal additional sensory perception, allows insights into the neural mechanisms of normal and abnormal cross-modal sensory processing. Consistent with the notion that synesthesia results from hyperconnectivity, functional connectivity analysis (adopting independent component analysis and seed-based correlation analysis) of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 12 grapheme-color synesthetes and 12 nonsynesthetic control subjects revealed, in addition to increased intranetwork connectivity, both a global and a specific (medial and lateral visual networks to a right frontoparietal network) increase of intrinsic internetwork connectivity in grapheme-color synesthesia. Moreover, this increased intrinsic network connectivity reflected the strength of synesthetic experiences. These findings constitute the first direct evidence of increased functional network connectivity in synesthesia. In addition to this significant contribution to the understanding of the neural mechanisms of synesthesia, our results have important general implications. In combination with data derived from clinical populations, our data strongly suggest that altered differences in intrinsic network connectivity are directly related to the phenomenology of human experiences.

Keyword(s): Adult (MeSH) ; Analysis of Variance (MeSH) ; Auditory Perception: physiology (MeSH) ; Brain: blood supply (MeSH) ; Brain: pathology (MeSH) ; Brain Mapping (MeSH) ; Color Perception (MeSH) ; Female (MeSH) ; Humans (MeSH) ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted (MeSH) ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MeSH) ; Male (MeSH) ; Neural Pathways: blood supply (MeSH) ; Neural Pathways: pathology (MeSH) ; Oxygen: blood (MeSH) ; Perceptual Disorders: pathology (MeSH) ; Phonetics (MeSH) ; Regression Analysis (MeSH) ; Rest (MeSH) ; Young Adult (MeSH) ; Oxygen ; J

Note: This work was supported by Grant 8762754 of the Kommission fuer Klinische Forschung at the Klinikum Rechts der Isar (to V. R.). We are grateful to our subjects and our colleagues at the Institute of Neurocience and Medicine, Research Centre Julich.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Kognitive Neurowissenschaften (INM-3)

Research Program(s):

1. Funktion und Dysfunktion des Nervensystems (FUEK409) (FUEK409)
2. 89572 - (Dys-)function and Plasticity (POF2-89572) (POF2-89572)

Appears in the scientific report 2012

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Database coverage:
; ; BIOSIS Previews ; Current Contents - Life Sciences ; JCR ; NCBI Molecular Biology Database ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Thomson Reuters Master Journal List ; Web of Science Core Collection

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