The Spinning Silhouette Optical Illusion

I never get bored with this illusion. With sheer mental power you can make her rotation shift direction. It takes some practice to do it!

 

The Cafe Wall Illusion

This is one of my favorite illusions. It was discovered by Dr. Richard Gregory. The horizontal lines appear to be bent, but they are in fact parallel, straight, horizontal lines.

Study of Color Discrimination and Memory

We are conducting a study of color discrimination and short-term color memory. I would be grateful if you would participate in the study. You'll need to use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the color of a square to fit the color of a second image. It will only take about 5-10 minutes. Click on the link below to begin.
www.synesthesiaresearch.com/study

'Seem' and Seemings

A rough draft of my paper "A semantic account of 'seem' and seemings" is available here. Feel free to email me your comments.

Special Issue of Philosophical Studies on High-Level Properties in Perception

My special issue of Philosophical Studies on high-level properties in perception will be out in the next issue of the journal. It includes contributions by Jennifer Matey, Heather Logue, Ophelia DeRoy, Nico Silins, Bill Fish, Tim Bayne & Ryan Perkins (co-authored contribution), and Roy Sorensen.

Change Blindness

See if you can identify the change in this picture. This one is a bit harder.

Change Blindness

    See if you identify the part of the image that changes.

Seeing as a Non-Sensory Relation: The Case from Synesthesia and Visual Imagery

A friend of mine recently asked me whether I thought synesthesia has any philosophical consequences or is just an independently interesting phenomenon. I think it has numerous philosophical consequences. In this paper I outline some consequences of synesthesia for the analysis of the concept of seeing. This is still just a rough draft. Comments are welcome.

The Epistemology of Perception

I recently guest-edited a volume of Philosophical Issues on the epistemology of perception. It just came out in print. Contributors include: Roger Albritton (hitherto unpublished paper), Louise Antony, Berit Brogaard, Tony Brueckner, Benj Hellie, Mark Johnston, Mark Kalderon, Uriah Kriegel, Heather Logue, Jack Lyons, Farid Masrour, Alan Millar, Martine Nida-Ruemelin, Adam Pautz, Duncan Pritchard, Roy Sorensen, David Sosa, Matthew Soteriou, Charles Travis, Brian Cutter and Michael Tye.

Perceptual Reports

I have uploaded a new version of my "Perceptual Reports" to my website. Here is the link.

Can Time Slow Down?

More or Less: Varieties of Human Cortical Color Vision

Philosophers, neurophysiologists, psychologists and researchers within the cognitive sciences are warmly invited to attend the conference and to submit posters. The conference will be held at Simon Fraser University Harbour Center in Vancouver on August 5-7, 2011.

The focus of this conference is "colour beyond the retina", both the normal neurophysiology of human cortical colour mechanisms and a variety of cortical color 'anomalies', in particular:

* Cerebral Achromatopsia
* Color Synaesthesias
* Color Blindsight
* Cortical Color Development

Early career researchers and graduate students are invited to apply for a two day intensive workshop held prior to the conference. The workshop will take place on August 4-5, 2011.

Confirmed Speakers and Workshop Leaders Include

Morten Overgaard (Aarhus University)
Fred Kingdom (McGill University)
Qasim Zaidi (SUNY State College of Optometry)
Charles Heywood (Durham University)
Bob Kentridge (Durham University)
Michael Tye (University of Texas, Austin)
Austen Clark (UConn)
Jon Opie (University of Adelaide)
Berit Brogaard (University of Missouri at St. Louis)
Tony Ro (CUNY)
Dan Smilek (University of Waterloo)
Julia Simner (University of Edinburgh)
Kathy Mullen (McGill University)
Alex Byrne (MIT)
Roy Sorensen (Washington University, St. Louis)

For a complete list of confirmed speakers, click HERE.

This conference is funded by The James S. McDonnell Foundation.

Report on Acquired Synesthesia and Savant Syndrome

I just finished an initial report on a case of acquired synesthesia and savant syndrome. The report is available here.

Accidental Genius

Here is a follow-up news clip about a subject I work with, who has synesthesia and savant syndrome. The first news clip can be found here.
 

Synesthesia Water Color

Alex Heim, a synesthete who also has migraine auras, just sent me this water color of one of his synesthetic auras. The second picture is the water color digitally superimposed on a picture to show how the colors are in front of his vision but not blocking it out. The second picture was also created by Alex Heim.

Synesthesia and Non-Synesthesia Subjects

I am now looking for people with number-color synesthesia for spatial response time tests. You don't have to be located in the St. Louis area to take these tests.

I am also looking for non-synesthetes for an fMRI study that will be carried out at Washington University, St. Louis. The scan will take 2 hours and you will be asked to complete some rather trivial tasks (e.g. studying a photo) while inside the machine.

fMRI is a non-invasive procedure that measures changes in blood flow corresponding to activity in the brain. Radio waves redirect the axes of spinning protons in a strong magnetic field that is produced by passing an electric current through wire coils. A computer processes the signals and generates a series of images.

The procedure does not depend on ionizing radiation, there is no radiation exposure, and short-term exposure to magnetic fields and radio waves is considered harmless. fMRI scans therefore have no known side-effects and are not associated with any discomfort.

Only very few people should not get an fMRI. These include people who may be pregnant, people with whole-body tattoos and people with an internal defibrillator or pacemaker, an ear implant or clips on brain aneurysms. Platinum implants in other parts of the body do not compromise your safety during the procedure.

To qualify for this study, you must be located in the St. Louis area or be willing to travel to the St. Louis area. If you are interested, please email me at: brogaardb@umsl.edu

My Paper on Unconscious Perceptual Processes

The official link to my paper "Are there unconscious perceptual processes?" is now up. The paper manuscript is available in full on my homepage.

Drawing of a Migraine Aura

Alex Heim is a synesthete who also has migraine auras. He just sent me this drawing of one of his migraine auras.

Short Film on Synesthesia

One of the young synesthetic savants I work with in Australia just created this film on synesthesia.

Color Experience in Blindsight?

I have a new paper called "Color Experience in Blindsight?" It's a semi-protected link, so Google search engines won't pick up on it. If you are interested, please go ahead and take a look at it. The link will be fully public, when I am done making little alterations (very little, as the proofs are on their way).