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Synesthesia

Survival of the Synesthesia Gene: Why Do People Hear Colors and Taste Words? D. Brang , VS. Ramachandran, PLoS Biol 9(11): e1001205.

Synesthesia is a perceptual experience in which stimuli presented through one modality will spontaneously evoke sensations in an unrelated modality. The condition occurs from increased communication between sensory regions and is involuntary, automatic, and stable over time. Genetic research on synesthesia suggests the phenomenon is heterogeneous and polygenetic, yet it remains unclear whether synesthesia ever provided a selective advantage or is merely a byproduct of some other useful selected trait. Progress in uncovering the genetic basis of synesthesia will help us understand why synesthesia has been conserved in the population.

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Synesthesia

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The taste of cutlery

Fork with knife, blank plates, empty cup and napkin. On wooden t

The taste of cutlery: how the taste of food is affected by the weight, size, shape, and colour of the cutlery used to eat it -V. Harrar and C. Spence, Flavour 2013, 2:21

In this article the authors show that the properties of the cutlery can affect people’s taste perception of everyday foods, most likely when expectations regarding the cutlery or the food have been disconfirmed. They discuss these results in the context of changing environmental cues in order to modify people’s eating habits.

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Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans

Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies – C. Grau, R. Ginhoux, A. Riera, T. Lam Nguyen, H. Chauvat, M. Berg, JL. Amengual, A. Pascual-Leone, G. Ruffini, PLoS ONE 9(8): e105225.

Human sensory and motor systems provide the natural means for the exchange of information between individuals, and, hence, the basis for human civilization. The recent development of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) has provided an important element for the creation of brain-to-brain communication systems, and precise brain stimulation techniques are now available for the realization of non-invasive computer-brain interfaces (CBI). These technologies, BCI and CBI, can be combined to realize the vision of non-invasive, computer-mediated brain-to-brain (B2B) communication between subjects (hyperinteraction). This article provide a critical proof-of-principle demonstration for the development of conscious B2B communication technologies. More fully developed, related implementations will open new research venues in cognitive, social and clinical neuroscience and the scientific study of consciousness.

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brain

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Why Some Women Look Young for Their Age

Why Some Women Look Young for Their Age – DA. Gunn , H. Rexbye, CEM. Griffiths, PG. Murray, A Fereday, SD. Catt, CC. Tomlin, BH. Strongitharm, DI. Perrett, M. Catt, AE. Mayes, AG. Messenger, MR. Green, F. van der Ouderaa, JW. Vaupel, K. Christensen, PLoS ONE 4(12): e8021

The desire of many to look young for their age has led to the establishment of a large cosmetics industry. However, the features of appearance that primarily determine how old women look for their age and whether genetic or environmental factors predominately influence such features are largely unknown. The findings indicates that women who look young for their age have large lips, avoid sun-exposure and possess genetic factors that protect against the development of gray hair and skin wrinkles. The findings also demonstrate that perceived age is a better biomarker of skin, hair and facial aging than chronological age.

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Images of Bystanders Extracted from Corneal Reflections

Identifiable Images of Bystanders Extracted from Corneal Reflections – R. Jenkins, C. Kerr, PLoS ONE 8(12): e83325

Criminal investigations often use photographic evidence to identify suspects. In this article the authors combined robust face perception and high-resolution photography to mine face photographs for hidden information. By zooming in on high-resolution face photographs, they were able to recover images of unseen bystanders from reflections in the subjects’ eyes. To establish whether these bystanders could be identified from the reflection images, they presented them as stimuli in a face matching task. Accuracy in the face matching task was well above chance (50%), despite the unpromising source of the stimuli. In a test of spontaneous recognition, observers could reliably name a familiar face from an eye reflection image. For crimes in which the victims are photographed (e.g., hostage taking, child sex abuse), reflections in the eyes of the photographic subject could help to identify perpetrators.

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A taste of Kandinsky

A taste of Kandinsky: assessing the influence of the artistic visual presentation of food on the dining experience – C. Michel, C. Velasco, E. Gatti and C. Spence, Flavour 2014, 3:7

This article supports the idea that presenting food in an aesthetically pleasing manner can enhance the experience of a dish. In particular, the use of artistic (visual) influences can enhance a diner’s rating of the flavour of a dish. These results are consistent with previous findings, suggesting that visual display of a food can influence both a person’s expectations and their subsequent experience of a dish, and with the common assumption that we eat with our eyes first.

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