Many thanks for letting me now about this interesting and in parts questionable article, Socrates. I hope to find the time to write a bit about it.
Did you notice that one of the researchers mentioned in the article came up with some unsupported B.S. to try to depict synaesthesia as some type of learning disability, and that researcher was from Cambridge? Yes indeed, a research associate of the zany professor and also one of the many researchers who has been taken in by the Tammet sham and also has been involved with researchinto the genetics of synaesthesia. I can tell you that a number of people in the synaesthesia community are very unpleased by the way this researcher has chosen to negatively medicalize a neurological condition that is almost universally regarded by researchers and experiencers as a harmless and potentially enjoyable and useful common variation. When this article at CNN first came out in 2009 it attracted many angry comments form synaesthetes, but strangely this article now has no comments attached to it. How odd. http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/09/synesthesia.genes/index.html The researcher describes synaesthesia as a "disorder" here too: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/media/podcasts/marchtranscript1 and his boss describes synaesthesia and a disorder here: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2009/News/WTX053384.htm I'm sure it's all about funding. These researchers are funded by the Wellcome Trust, and I'll bet funding is only given to research about "disorders".
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21183-hyperactive-neurons-build-brains-in-synaesthesia.html
Many thanks for letting me now about this interesting and in parts questionable article, Socrates. I hope to find the time to write a bit about it.
Did you notice that one of the researchers mentioned in the article came up with some unsupported B.S. to try to depict synaesthesia as some type of learning disability, and that researcher was from Cambridge? Yes indeed, a research associate of the zany professor and also one of the many researchers who has been taken in by the Tammet sham and also has been involved with researchinto the genetics of synaesthesia. I can tell you that a number of people in the synaesthesia community are very unpleased by the way this researcher has chosen to negatively medicalize a neurological condition that is almost universally regarded by researchers and experiencers as a harmless and potentially enjoyable and useful common variation. When this article at CNN first came out in 2009 it attracted many angry comments form synaesthetes, but strangely this article now has no comments attached to it. How odd.
http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/09/synesthesia.genes/index.html
The researcher describes synaesthesia as a "disorder" here too:
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/media/podcasts/marchtranscript1
and his boss describes synaesthesia and a disorder here:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2009/News/WTX053384.htm
I'm sure it's all about funding. These researchers are funded by the Wellcome Trust, and I'll bet funding is only given to research about "disorders".
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