Involuntary Experience Research Articles

現代漢語和古漢語的通感隱喩映射方向性綜合硏究

Synaesthesia is a physical phenomenon which refers to ‘the involuntary experience of a cross-modal association’ (Shen 2008). In linguistics, generally speaking, synaesthesia is considered as a common sort of metaphor in poetic and ordinary language which can make a metaphoric transfer from one sensory domain to another. For instance, ‘cold color’ is linguistically synaesthetic, because the speaker expresses a perception of vision by using a word related to touch. In this paper, I make a brief introduction to linguistic synaesthesia, namely, synaesthetic metaphor, based on previous studies in different languages and different methods, and then, attempt to analyze the synaesthetic data collected from modern and ancient Chinese. In conclusion, the data analysis results of both modern Mandarin Chinese and ancient Chinese show that the linguistic synaesthesia from Chinese is different from that from Ullmann’s (1957) study in the metaphoric directionality. It implies that linguistic synaesthesia could have language- or culture-specific variations as per language.

“A Light in Sound, a Sound-Like Power in Light”: Poetry, Synaesthesia & Multimedia

Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon of cross-modal perception in which stimulation of one sensory pathway results in automatic, simultaneous, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway, such as the perceiving of sound as a colour. Creatively employed as a literary trope, synaesthesia involves the blending of different sense modalities, often in the form of figurative language. Exploring the interrelationship of synaesthetic aesthetics and experimentation from a historical perspective, this essay traces the transgressive artistic impulse to blur sensorial boundaries through technical innovation from the eighteenth-century audio-visual experiments of Louis Bertrand Castel’s ocular harpsichord (clavecin pour les yeux) to twenty-first century LED colour organs, speech coding, and Augmented/Virtual Reality interfaces used in multisensory art exhibitions. By outlining a few of the major historical developments of synaesthetic theory and poetics as well as some of the diverse immersive experiences made possible through original combinations of discrete sensory channels via transmedial artistic experimentation, the present paper aims to demonstrate how synaesthesia – located at the interface of literature and neuroscience, sensation and ideation, mind and body – might also fruitfully be explored in relation to lyric poetry at the interface of multisensoriality and multimedia.

SILENCE: Capturing the Feeling of Inner Quietude.

Silent experiences are integral parts of human life, and despite such moments of silence-phenomena may falsely be perceived as moments of "nothings", they are in fact an essential part of human apperception and meaning-making. The significance of moments of silence (an internal, timeless state of being often perceived as solitary, spiritual-mystical, and unconscious, involuntary experiences) and silences (contextual states of temporally oriented and social experiences) is supported by the principles behind the concepts of Gestalten and zero signifiers, in that such absence can lead to greater understanding of meaning than any explicit and direct element ever could. The human experience of life is inseparably linked with the function of apperception as experiencing the presence in a combination with reconstruction of the past and imagination of the future. And as this dynamic across irreversibility of time is in any human experience it is as well present within experiences of silence. Furthermore, is the phenomenon of Einfühlung (the process of feeling in and through others, objects, and oneself) a crucial part of silence-phenomena, as it is uncovered to be connected with both silence as a facilitator of emergence of silence as well as silences affect the act of Einfühlung. Aesthetic experiences can in the form of poetic instants lead to moments of silence, through the human function of Einfühlung. Finally, an analysis of a passage from Lev Vygotsky's personal notebooks will support the line of reasoning the centrality of the existence of silence.

Fenomenología y memoria involuntaria en la experimentación pictórica

<p>Este artículo reflexiona sobre el proceso que tiene lugar en nuestra memoria para la construcción de un recuerdo, proceso de interiorización que deviene el punto de partida para la creación de una obra pictórica. Para ello nos serviremos de los conceptos: memoria Involuntaria y experiencia fenomenológica, como componentes que devienen esenciales para explicar el nacimiento de una imagen o si más no, nos sitúan frente a una actitud que en el obrar artístico puede sorprendernos de forma sin igual. Esta investigación se basa en la propia experiencia que como practicante de la pintura, me ha conducido a reconsiderar la memoria como fuente de creación y también como origen de lo que llamamos imaginación. Me referiré en este estudio al pensamiento de Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) y Marcel Proust (1871-1922) para profundizar en los conceptos que son capitales en esta pesquisa, así como también y de forma entrecruzada, citaremos a Henri Bergson (1859-1941) y a la filósofa Marina Garcés (1973-), a quien agradezco la entrada que con sus escritos me ha proporcionado hacia el campo filosófico, en especial a los citados pensadores a través de la publicación de su libro, “Filosofía Inacabada” (2018). Para la construcción de este discurso haré mención de dos proyectos pictóricos personales realizados en los últimos años: “A-cercamientos” (2017-18) y “Gestaciones” (2018-2019). Ambos fueron presentados en los espacios expositivos del Puerto de Tarragona la temporada (2019-20).</p>

An Intelligent System to Generate Chord Progressions from Colors with an Artificial Immune System

Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Many synesthetes used their capabilities as inspiration for their works. Drawing on this phenomenon, this paper presents a model able to create chord progressions using colors as the synesthetic input. In particular, the model extracts sound from colors to create chord progressions by applying an artificial immune system (AIS). The quality of each chord is mapped in the Tonal Interval Space, a geometrical space in which mathematical measures are related to musical properties. The result is an assistive tool that has been evaluated in terms of musical standards and usefulness for the users.

Migration and wage labour: a case study of Ghanaians in New York City, 1957-2010

Ghanaian migration to the USA is considered a displacement caused by poverty, political instability and the desire for one to improve his or her economic and social status. Such perceptions are usually based on stereotypes rather than theoretically informed empirical evidence. This idea is influenced by media images of massive refugee flows of Africa to the USA. Like any other African immigrants, Ghanaian migration to the USA can be viewed in two main forms; involuntary and voluntary. The involuntary migration experience of Ghanaians in the USA dates to the 16th century when Ghanaians were brought to North America as slaves to provide labour for the 'new world'. Voluntary migration of Ghanaian, on the other hand, became visible during the second half of the 20th century after the country gained its independence from the British. Methodologically, the paper employs the qualitative approach by examining newspapers reports, oral interviews and various secondary sources exploring migration and labour history.

A Farewell to Involuntary Mobility: Narratives on Homeownership in Mid-Twentieth-Century Finland

Abstract Until the Interwar period, the majority of the Finnish population lived in small peasant communities in remote parts of the country. Since the growing season was short, much of the country was unsuitable for arable farming, and, in the beginning of the twentieth century, traditional agriculture was not able to employ the increasing population. People moved to towns and industrial centers to seek better economic opportunities and lifestyles and to find employment. In this article, I will analyze the life stories of the common Finnish people, born between 1874 and 1939, who felt compelled to move from their rural family communities. Many of the narrators had integration difficulties in their new environments; for example, living as a tenant in a block of flats was depicted as difficult and, therefore, many of them returned to the rural countryside in order to set up a smallholding of their own. For many, ownership of a small farm and the rural lifestyle it provided represented the cultural norm, and the images of a farmhouse received the typical characteristics of a “key-symbol.” The article discusses mobility within a nation-state as a cultural involuntary experience.

Multidimensional and fluctuating experiences of loneliness from childhood to young adulthood in Northern Finland

Abstract Loneliness is a negative, involuntary experience, common among children and adolescents. It has been recently suggested that young adults are especially prone to loneliness, as they experience many transitions while establishing their own lifestyles; however, there is a lack of research on the experience of loneliness among this age group. In the present study, the lived experiences of past and current loneliness from childhood to young adulthood in people (aged 27–28 years) born in Northern Finland were examined. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 participants who self-reported that they were very lonely in adolescence. Their responses were analyzed with a theory-guided, qualitative content analysis method, in which the meanings of loneliness over their life courses were explored. As a result, loneliness experiences of young adults are described using five dimensions: Personal, Relational, Physical context, Life event, and Sociocultural. These dimensions revealed the entangled ways in which loneliness is experienced; how it emerges, intensifies, and is alleviated; and what consequences it carries. The duration and intensity of loneliness experienced by the participants fluctuated over the course of their lives, and six distinct trajectories of loneliness were constructed from the data. Loneliness had a variety of causes and detrimental consequences; chronic loneliness was developed through the entangled effects of self and other related adversities over time, and matters related to the Sociocultural dimension of loneliness. (Hetero)gender(ed)norms centrally affected intensification of loneliness. To reduce the risk of chronic loneliness and improve wellbeing and health, early and multilevel interventions – individual, relational, communal, and societal – are warranted.

Not myself and the connected self: cases of youth depression and recovery in Malaysia

ABSTRACTThis study aims to explore the subjective experience of depressed young people in Malaysia. Twelve participants aged 20–24, who were diagnosed as suffering from depression but who had recovered, were interviewed. An adapted grounded theory approach guided our data collection and data analysis process. Two themes emerged which revealed the importance of the connectedness of individuals within their social environment. Coping with cultural norms and with rejection were found to be the most stressful precursors to depression. Depression is described as an alienating and involuntary experience. The recovery process requires a pivotal moment which enables reconnection with others. Implication of study will be discussed against the backdrop of the Malaysian context.

“Did I push myself over the edge?”: Complications of agency in psychosis onset and development

Objective: To investigate the subjective experience of agency in the onset and early development of psychosis.Method: We conducted 19 in-depth interviews with a sample of individuals with self-reported diagnoses of schizophrenia and/or affective psychosis. Interviews focused on participants’ experiences of agency and control in the onset and development of positive psychotic symptoms. Interviews were coded and transcripts analyzed by service-user researchers.Results: The majority of participants reported multiple ways in which they experienced their own agency or intentionality as involved in the initial onset of psychosis, in self-conscious engagement with symptom structure and content, and in their elaboration and development. For many, the moral implications of these felt experiences were considerable, at times leading to shame or guilt.Conclusion: Clinical accounts often stress the imposed, involuntary experience of symptoms and onset. Our project suggests that at least a subset of subjects with psychosis instead experience themselves as partly or fully “responsible” for onset, and actively involved in the shaping and elaboration of positive symptoms. In both clinical practice and future research, we argue that such complications should be explored and grappled with rather than downplayed.

Commentary: Musical hallucinations: review of treatment effects.

Commentary: Musical hallucinations: review of treatment effects.

The role of conceptual knowledge in understanding synaesthesia: Evaluating contemporary findings from a “hub-and-spokes” perspective

Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which stimulation in one sensory modality triggers involuntary experiences typically not associated with that stimulation. Inducing stimuli (inducers) and synesthetic experiences (concurrents) may occur within the same modality (e.g., seeing colors while reading achromatic text) or span across different modalities (e.g., tasting flavors while listening to music). Although there has been considerable progress over the last decade in understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms of synesthesia, the focus of current neurocognitive models of synesthesia does not encompass many crucial psychophysical characteristics documented in behavioral research. Prominent theories of the neurophysiological basis of synesthesia construe it as a perceptual phenomenon and hence focus primarily on the modality-specific brain regions for perception. Many behavioral studies, however, suggest an essential role for conceptual-level information in synesthesia. For example, there is evidence that synesthetic experience arises subsequent to identification of an inducing stimulus, differs substantially from real perceptual events, can be akin to perceptual memory, and is susceptible to lexical/semantic contexts. These data suggest that neural mechanisms lying beyond the realm of the perceptual cortex (especially the visual system), such as regions subserving conceptual knowledge, may play pivotal roles in the neural architecture of synesthesia. Here we discuss the significance of non-perceptual mechanisms that call for a re-evaluation of the emphasis on synesthesia as a perceptual phenomenon. We also review recent studies which hint that some aspects of synesthesia resemble our general conceptual knowledge for object attributes, at both psychophysical and neural levels. We then present a conceptual-mediation model of synesthesia in which the inducer and concurrent are linked within a conceptual-level representation. This “inducer-to-concurrent” nexus is maintained within a supramodal “hub,” while the subjective (bodily) experience of its resultant concurrent (e.g., a color) may then require activation of “spokes” in the perception-related cortices. This hypothesized “hub-and-spoke” structure would engage a distributed network of cortical regions and may account for the full breadth of this intriguing phenomenon.

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

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.

Exploring the benefit of synaesthetic colours: Testing for “pop-out” in individuals with grapheme–colour synaesthesia

In grapheme–colour synaesthesia, letters, numbers, and words elicit involuntary colour experiences. Recently, there has been much emphasis on individual differences and possible subcategories of synaesthetes with different underlying mechanisms. In particular, there are claims that for some, synaesthesia occurs prior to attention and awareness of the inducing stimulus. We first characterized our sample using two versions of the “Synaesthetic Congruency Task” to distinguish “projector” and “associator” synaesthetes who may differ in the extent to which their synaesthesia depends on attention and awareness. We then used a novel modification of the “Embedded Figures Task” that included a set-size manipulation to look for evidence of preattentive “pop-out” from synaesthetic colours, at both a group and an individual level. We replicate an advantage for synaesthetes over nonsynaesthetic controls on the Embedded Figures Task in accuracy, but find no support for pop-out of synaesthetic colours. We conclude that grapheme–colour synaesthetes are fundamentally similar in their visual processing to the general population, with the source of their unusual conscious colour experiences occurring late in the cognitive hierarchy.

Mirror-touch and ticker tape experiences in synesthesia

A fundamental question in the field of synesthesia is whether it is associated with other cognitive phenomena. The current study examined synesthesia's connections with phenomenal traits of mirror-touch and ticker tape experiences, as well as the representation of the three phenomena in the population, across gender and domain of work/study. Mirror-touch is the automatic, involuntary experience of tactile sensation on one's own body when others are being touched. For example, seeing another person's arm being stroked can evoke physical touch sensation on one's own arm. Ticker tape is the automatic visualization of spoken words or thoughts, such as a teleprompter. For example, when spoken to, a ticker taper might see mentally the spoken words displayed in front of his face or as coming out of the speaker's mouth. To explore synesthesia's associations with these phenomena, a diverse group (n = 3743) was systematically recruited from eight universities and one public museum in France to complete an online screening. Of the 1017 eligible respondents, synesthetes (across all subtypes) reported higher rates of mirror-touch and ticker tape than non-synesthetes, suggesting that synesthesia is associated with these phenomenal traits. However, effect sizes were small and we could not rule out that response bias influenced these associations. Mirror-touch and ticker tape were independent. No differences were found across gender or domain of work and study in prevalence of synesthesia, mirror-touch or ticker tape. The prevalence of ticker tape, unknown so far, was estimated at about 7%, an intermediate rate between estimates of grapheme-color (2–4%) and sequence-space synesthesia (9–14%). Within synesthesia, grapheme-personification, also called ordinal-linguistic personification (OLP) was the most common subtype and was estimated around 12%. Co-occurences of the different types of synesthesia were higher than chance, though at the level of small effect sizes.

Modality and Variability of Synesthetic Experience

In synesthesia, stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to additional, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. We here review previous surveys on this neurologically based phenomenon and report the results of 63 synesthetes who completed our Internet and paper questionnaire on synesthesia. In addition to asking for personal data and information on the participant's synesthesia, the questionnaire focused on the components of the inducer that elicit or modulate synesthesia. Synesthesia was most often developmental (92%) and of the grapheme-color type (86%). Sixty-two percent of the participants perceived time-related words in a spatial configuration. Music-color synesthesia was common (41%), and synesthesia for natural and artificial sounds (33%) was higher than in previous estimates. Eighty-one percent of participants experienced more than one form of synesthesia. Multimodal synesthesia, in which inducer and concurrent belong to 2 different sensory modalities, occurred in 92% of the participants. Overall, auditory stimuli were most often reported as inducers, and visual concurrents were most common. Modulations of the synesthetic experiences such as changes of the concurrent color, expansion within the same or to a different sensory modality, or reduction of the number of inducers over time were reported by 17% of participants. This challenges the presumed consistency of synesthesia and the adequacy of the test-retest consistency score still most commonly used to assess the veracity of reported synesthesia. Implications of the high prevalence of cross-modal synesthesia and the variability of synesthesia are discussed.

Grapheme-color synesthetes show enhanced crossmodal processing between auditory and visual modalities

Synesthesia is an involuntary experience in which stimulation of one sensory modality triggers additional, atypical sensory experiences. Strong multisensory processes are present in the general population, but the relationship between these ‘normal’ sensory interactions and synesthesia is currently unknown. Neuroimaging research suggests that some forms of synesthesia are caused by enhanced cross-activation between brain areas specialized for the processing of different sensory attributes, and finds evidence of increased white matter connections among regions known to be involved in typical crossmodal processes. Using two classic crossmodal integration tasks we show that grapheme-color synesthetes exhibit enhanced crossmodal interactions between auditory and visual modalities, suggesting that the experience of synesthesia in one modality generalizes to enhanced crossmodal processes with other modalities. This finding supports our conjecture that the atypical sensory experiences of synesthetes represent a selective expression of a more diffuse propensity toward ‘typical’ crossmodality interactions.

Experienced action constructions in Umpithamu: Involuntary experience, from bodily processes to externally instigated actions

Abstract This paper is a semantic analysis of ‘experienced action’ constructions in Umpithamu, a Paman language from Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The basic argument is that these constructions are related to the better-attested category of experiencer object constructions (e.g. Evans, Non-nominative subjects 1: 69–192, 2004), which in Umpithamu describe involuntary experience of bodily processes. Experienced action constructions extend the feature of ‘involuntary experience’ from processes within the body to actions originating outside the body, and thus provide a semantically marked alternative for standard transitive clauses. The constructions are typologically interesting because they show the need to identify different loci of experiential semantics in a construction, and they help to clarify the status of control for human Undergoers within semantic typologies of reduced transitivity.

Synaesthesia, Color Terms, and Color Space: Color Claims Came From Color Names in Beeli, Esslen, and Jäncke (2007)

Grapheme-color synaesthesia is an unusual condition in which letters and digits generate involuntary experiences of color. In this article, we show that grapheme-color synaesthetes make nonrandom associations that are best described by an understanding of color language, and that different measures of such associations converge to illustrate a nonarbitrary relationship for all people between color names and color space. We focus on a recent study (Beeli, Esslen, & Jancke, 2007) that presented the ostensibly novel finding of a relationship between the colors that synaesthetes associate with graphemes and the frequencies of those graphemes. However, in a study published 2 years earlier (Simner et al., 2005), but not cited by Beeli et al., we had already established that grapheme frequencies are important. We showed that high-frequency graphemes tend to be paired with high-frequency color names (e.g., ared) in verbal reports of synaesthetic associations. Beeli et al. measured the hue, saturation, and luminance (HSL) of synaesthetic colors and showed {inter alia) that grapheme frequency was correlated with the colors' saturation. In this Commentary, we compare data from our previous study with those of Beeli et al. and empirically demonstrate that synaesthetic colors are best accounted for by color naming; we also suggest that the similarity across the two studies may be indicative of an independent relationship between color naming and color space for all people. We reanalyzed the data from Beeli et al. in order to demonstrate three facts: that, as we predicted (Simner et al., 2005), their synaesthetes shared certain grapheme-color associations (e.g., a was associated with red more often than predicted by chance); that, also as we predicted, these grapheme-color combinations reflect a positive correlation between grapheme frequency and color-name frequency; and finally, that certain aspects of the HSL color space (upon which Beeli et al. based their conclusions) may be predicted from color naming. We converted the synaesthetic color choices from the graphemecolor synaesthetes tested by Beeli et al. (their Fig. 1) into the 11 irreducible color terms from Berlin and Kay (1969; i.e., black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, orange, purple, pink, and gray). Our coding was performed by two independent assessors, with any disagreements resolved by a third coder. We then performed upper-tail binomial analyses, which showed that certain grapheme-color combinations occurred significantly more often than would be predicted by chance. For example, Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of blue and white color associations

Ascription, attribution, and cognition in the study of experiences deemed religious

There have been two major approaches to the study of ‘religious experience’ in religious studies, which I refer to as the sui generis model and the ascriptive model. The sui generis model assumes, implicitly or explicitly, that there are specifically religious (or mystical or spiritual) experiences, emotions, acts, or objects; the ascriptive model assumes that there are not. I argue that the sui generis model holds little promise in terms of linking the study of religion and brain research, while the ascriptive model, presupposed by attributional theories of religion in social psychology, provides a means of linking the cognitive and cultural approaches to the study of religion. Classical attribution theories of religion [Proudfoot, W., Shaver, P., 1975. Attribution theory and the psychology of religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 14(4), 317–330; Spilka, B., Shaver, P., Kirkpatrick, L.A., 1985. A general attribution theory for the psychology of religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 24(1), 1–20], however, need to be updated in light of recent work in social cognition and social neuroscience to better understand those experiences that most challenge an attributional model: those that subjects experience as inherently religious. To get at this, we need to distinguish between attributions of causality and ascriptions of qualities; although the former are invariably conscious, something like the latter may take place below the threshold of consciousness. Psychological and neuroscientific research on involuntary experiences, such as dreaming and hallucinations, has the potential to clarify the role of conscious and non-conscious processes in the deeming of things religious.