Person:
Peña Melián, Ángel

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First Name
Ángel
Last Name
Peña Melián
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/81551
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Medicina
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Area
Anatomía y Embriología Humana
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2013 - 20142
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Author: Melero Carrasco, Helena × Item Type: Publication ×

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    Grapheme-color synesthetes show peculiarities in their emotional brain: cortical and subcortical evidence from VBM analysis of 3D-T1 and DTI data
    (Experimental Brain Research, 2013) Ríos-Lago, M.; Pajares, G.; Hernández-Tamames, J. A.; Álvarez-Linera, J.; Melero Carrasco, Helena; Peña Melián, Ángel
    Grapheme-color synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which viewing achromatic letters/numbers leads to automatic and involuntary color experiences. In this study, voxel-based morphometry analyses were performed on T1 images and fractional anisotropy measures to examine the whole brain in associator grapheme-color synesthetes. These analyses provide new evidence of variations in emotional areas (both at the cortical and subcortical levels), findings that help understand the emotional component as a relevant aspect of the synesthetic experience. Additionally, this study replicates previous findings in the left intraparietal sulcus and, for the first time, reports the existence of anatomical differences in subcortical gray nuclei of developmental grapheme-color synesthetes, providing a link between acquired and developmental synesthesia. This empirical evidence, which goes beyond modality-specific areas, could lead to a better understanding of grapheme-color synesthesia as well as of other modalities of the phenomenon.
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    Achromatic synesthesias - A functional magnetic resonance imaging study
    (NeuroImage, 2014) Melero Carrasco, Helena; Ríos-Lago, M.; Peña Melián, Ángel; Álvarez-Linera, J.
    Grapheme–color synesthetes experience consistent, automatic and idiosyncratic colors associated with specific letters and numbers. Frequently, these specific associations exhibit achromatic synesthetic qualities (e.g. white, black or gray). In this study, we have investigated for the first time the neural basis of achromatic synesthesias, their relationship to chromatic synesthesias and the achromatic congruency effect in order to understand not only synesthetic color but also other components of the synesthetic experience. To achieve this aim, functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments were performed in a group of associator grapheme–color synesthetes and matched controls who were stimulated with real chromatic and achromatic stimuli (Mondrians), and with letters and numbers that elicited different types of grapheme–color synesthesias (i.e. chromatic and achromatic inducers which elicited chromatic but also achromatic synesthesias, as well as congruent and incongruent ones). The information derived from the analysis of Mondrians and chromatic/achromatic synesthesias suggests that real and synesthetic colors/achromaticity do not fully share neural mechanisms. The whole-brain analysis of BOLD signals in response to the complete set of synesthetic inducers revealed that the functional peculiarities of the synesthetic brain are distributed, and reflect different components of the synesthetic experience: a perceptual component, an (attentional) feature binding component, and an emotional component. Additionally, the inclusion of achromatic experiences has provided new evidence in favor of the emotional binding theory, a line of interpretation which constitutes a bridge between grapheme–color synesthesia and other developmental modalities of the phenomenon.