Olympia Colizoli
WE ZIJN OP ZOEK NAAR KINDEREN MET SYNESTHESIE!
Op het moment breiden we ons onderzoek uit. We willen graag leren hoe het voor kinderen is om synesthesie te hebben. Bijvoorbeeld, helpt het op school, misschien omdat het makkelijker is om dingen te onthouden? Of is het juist lastig, bijvoorbeeld omdat ‘maandag’ altijd in de verkeerde kleur wordt geschreven? Daarnaast willen we meer bekendheid geven aan het feit dat er kinderen zijn met synesthesie. We horen namelijk dat synesthesie, met name op scholen, vaak niet begrepen wordt.
Daarnaast zijn we voor ons onderzoek op zoek naar verhalen van kinderen met synesthesie. Dit onderzoek is bij kinderen van alle leeftijden.
Wij willen hierbij uw hulp vragen. Heeft uw kind (wellicht) synesthesie? Als uw kind synesthesie heeft, kunt u dan contact met ons opnemen? Of misschien kent u een ander kind dat (wellicht) synesthesie heeft? Dan willen we u vragen om aan zijn/haar ouders te vragen om contact met ons op te nemen.
Mocht u opmerkingen/vragen hebben dan hoor ik het ook graag. O.Colizoli@uva.nl
Alvast heel hartelijk bedankt voor uw hulp!
WE ARE LOOKING FOR CHILDREN WITH SYNESTHESIA!
Presently, we are expanding our research . We would like to learn what it’s like for children to have synesthesia. For example, does it help with school work, maybe because it makes it easier to remember things? Or is does it make school difficult, for example, because ‘Monday’ is always written in the ‘wrong’ color? Furthermore, we want to draw more attention to the fact that there are children with synesthesia. We hear that synesthesia, particularly in schools, is most often not understood.
Now we have a special opportunity to raise awareness about synesthesia. Filmmaker, Marleen vander Werf, is making a documentary about kids with synesthesia. The great thing is that the film is not only about children, but is also for (all) children. For the documentary we are looking for children between the ages of 7 and 12 with synesthesia.
In addition, we are looking for stories from children with synesthesia for our research. For this research, we would like to hear from kids of all ages.
We would like to ask for your help. Do you have a child who has synesthesia (perhaps)? If your child has synesthesia, could you please contact us? Or maybe you know another child who (perhaps) has synesthesia? We would like to ask that you contact the child’s parents so that they may contact us.
If you have any questions or comments, we are happy to answer them. O.Colizoli@uva.nl
Many thanks in advance for your help!
Individual differences in visual memory - PhD Project
This project investigates the biological basis of individual differences in cognition, focusing on visual memory. If our research is successful, we will be able to say whether we are better at certain memory tasks (like remembering faces or routes) because our brains are more suited for it and whether such traits are heritable. We will use internet-based experimentation to find subjects, trace possible factors, pretest experiments, and find extreme scoring subjects. We will use fMRI to localize brain areas involved inspecific visual tasks in individuals. Structural MRIwill be used to find correlations between brain structure and memoryperformance across individuals. We will examine both grey matter (e.g. VBM) and white matter(e.g. DTI) variations in relation to individual differences in visual memory. We will also study heritability of aspects of visual memoryusing internet basedtwin and kin studies.
Synesthesia
The photograph, entitled "House of Consciousness", was taken by Marcia Smilack, a synesthete. She takes photographs based on the way that images sound to her.
My master thesis research was about grapheme-color synesthesia. Synesthesia, in general, is a huge area of interest for me.
To one synesthetic person, middle C when played on a violin is dark red and smells like baked bread. Synesthesia is a rare condition in which a stimulus from one modality automatically triggers unusual sensations in the same and/or other modalities. Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have repeatedly confirmed synesthesia as being a real phenomenon, in contrast to mere associations or vivid mental imagery. There are many different types of synesthesia, most of which involve sensory perceptions, but there are also more conceptual or abstract forms of it. The subjective reports from synesthetes themselves in combination with recent technological advances (fMRI, DTI, VBM, EEG, TMS) provide cognitive scientists with an amazing opportunity to understand how a phenomenological experience arises out of a certain pattern of connectivity within the brain.
If you are synesthetic or would just like more information about synesthesia, please do not hesitate to contact me - my door is always open!
Synesthesia Home Page
ART meets SCIENCE event 2012
Right now,the preliminary stages of an "Art Meets Science Interactive Event" are being arranged. I would like to create a very interactive environment using performances, art installations, music, therapies, and of course, useful information.
My inspirations come from the Burning Man and Robodock festivals, synesthesia as a phenomenon, music, dance and yoga, as well as the scientific pursuit of knowledge for the sake of living in a creative, holistic and beneficial environment.
This event is scheduled for summer 2012. I would like to make this an annual event with changing themes. I am looking for support for ideas, installations and organization. If anyone is interested, please email me: o.colizoli@uva.nl.