Premium
Handedness and calendar orientations in time–space synaesthesia
Author(s) -
Brang David,
Teuscher Ursina,
Miller Luke E,
Ramachandran Vilayanur S.,
Coulson Seana
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of neuropsychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1748-6653
pISSN - 1748-6645
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-6653.2011.02012.x
Subject(s) - clockwise , orientation (vector space) , psychology , association (psychology) , recall , space (punctuation) , cognitive psychology , audiology , communication , geometry , mathematics , computer science , medicine , rotation (mathematics) , psychotherapist , operating system
In one common variant of time–space synaesthesia, individuals report the consistent experience of months bound to a spatial arrangement, commonly described as a circle extending outside of the body. Whereas the layout of these calendars has previously been thought to be relatively random and to differ greatly between synaesthetes, Study 1 provides the first evidence suggesting one critical aspect of these calendars is mediated by handedness: clockwise versus counter‐clockwise orientation. A study of 34 time–space synaesthetes revealed a strong association between handedness and the orientation of circular calendars. That is, left‐handed time–space synaesthetes tended to report counter‐clockwise arrangements and right‐handed synaesthetes clockwise. Study 2 tested whether a similar bias was present in non‐synaesthetes whose task was to memorize and recall the spatial configuration of a clockwise and counter‐clockwise calendar. Non‐synaesthetes’ relative performance on these two sorts of calendars was significantly correlated with their handedness scores in a pattern similar to synaesthetes. Specifically, left‐handed controls performed better on counter‐clockwise calendars compared to clockwise, and right‐handed controls on clockwise over counter‐clockwise. We suggest that the implicit biases seen in controls are mediated by similar mechanisms as in synaesthesia, highlighting the graded nature of synaesthetic associations.