Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Oct;129(1):123-37.
doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.06.009. Epub 2013 Jul 27.

Enhanced dimension-specific visual working memory in grapheme-color synesthesia

Devin Blair Terhune  1 , Olga Anna Wudarczyk, Priya Kochuparampil, Roi Cohen Kadosh
Affiliations

Enhanced dimension-specific visual working memory in grapheme-color synesthesia

Devin Blair Terhune et al. Cognition. 2013 Oct.

Abstract

There is emerging evidence that the encoding of visual information and the maintenance of this information in a temporarily accessible state in working memory rely on the same neural mechanisms. A consequence of this overlap is that atypical forms of perception should influence working memory. We examined this by investigating whether having grapheme-color synesthesia, a condition characterized by the involuntary experience of color photisms when reading or representing graphemes, would confer benefits on working memory. Two competing hypotheses propose that superior memory in synesthesia results from information being coded in two information channels (dual-coding) or from superior dimension-specific visual processing (enhanced processing). We discriminated between these hypotheses in three n-back experiments in which controls and synesthetes viewed inducer and non-inducer graphemes and maintained color or grapheme information in working memory. Synesthetes displayed superior color working memory than controls for both grapheme types, whereas the two groups did not differ in grapheme working memory. Further analyses excluded the possibilities of enhanced working memory among synesthetes being due to greater color discrimination, stimulus color familiarity, or bidirectionality. These results reveal enhanced dimension-specific visual working memory in this population and supply further evidence for a close relationship between sensory processing and the maintenance of sensory information in working memory.

Keywords: Color-processing; Grapheme-processing; Synesthesia; Visual; Working memory; n-Back.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic diagram of the task structure. Blocks consisted of a stream of stimuli in which participants attended to the color of a grapheme (Experiments 1 and 3) or the grapheme itself (Experiment 2) and responded whether the stimulus dimension was the same (Target) or different (Foil) as the stimulus dimension n trials back in the sequence. Stimuli were either inducer graphemes (depicted here) or non-inducer graphemes. Participants completed two-back (depicted here) and three-back tasks in separate blocks. Numbers reflect stimuli durations (ms). ISI = Interstimulus interval.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Means ±1 standard error of the mean (SEM) for (A) ER and (B) drift rate in the inducer and non-inducer graphemes tasks in controls and synesthetes in Experiment 1 *p < .05.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mean RT ±1 standard error of the mean (SEM) in the inducer graphemes task as a function of Congruency in controls and synesthetes in Experiment 1 *p < .05.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Means ±1 standard error of the mean (SEM) for (A) ER and (B) RT in the inducer graphemes task as a function of Congruency in controls and synesthetes in Experiment 2.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Means ±1 standard error of the mean (SEM) for (A) RT and (B) nondecision time in the non-inducer graphemes task in controls and synesthetes in Experiment 3 *p < .01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Allen E.C., Beilock S.L., Shevell S.K. Working memory is related to perceptual processing: A case from color perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2011;37:1014–1021. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arnold D.H., Wegener S.V., Brown F., Mattingley J.B. Precision of synaesthetic colour matching resembles that for recollected colours rather than physical colours. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 2012;38:1078–1084. - PubMed
    1. Baddeley A. Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology. 2012;63:1–29. - PubMed
    1. Banissy M.J., Walsh V., Ward J. Enhanced sensory perception in synaesthesia. Experimental Brain Research. 2009;196:565–571. - PubMed
    1. Barnett K.J., Foxe J.J., Molholm S., Kelly S.P., Shalgi S., Mitchell K.J. Differences in early sensory-perceptual processing in synesthesia: A visual evoked potential study. NeuroImage. 2008;43:605–613. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources