Kyle,

        I forgot to tell you last week that I spoke with a friend who is an
opthmalogical surgeon. He said synethesia as you describe it is a common
phenomena in parietal/occipital insult such as a CVA.

        On the other "sex-linked" thing. That thinkling goes way back to a guy
named John Money at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He theorized the male had
better
directional sense than females. I doubt that it is sex-linked, but more the
particular method of socializing the different sexes in our society. I
taught my daughter how to drive when she was 12. I did not want her in a
situation she could not get out of because she did not know how to drive.
Anyway, she has better directionality than her mother or brother.

Bobby


>Bobby,
>
>I don't agree with some of this guy's experiential generalizations (and none
>of his emotive ones), but the pathology seems to be dead-on.  He thinks it's
>sex-linked genetic in origin, but if you read between the lines in the
>"Neural Basis" section, you can see the obvious link between synesthesia and
>CP: "...MWs cortical metabolism dropped so low during synesthesia that he
>should have been blind, paralyzed, or shown some
>other conventional sign of a lesion. (Left hemispheric flows were nearly
>three standard deviations below our lab's acceptable
>limits of normal.)"
>
>http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v2/psyche-2-10-cytowic.html
>
>-Kyle
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bobby Greer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 10:52 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Time for introducction
>
>
>>It seems that the aural and visual neural pathways had been somewhat
>crossed
>>when the cerebral insult occurred.  I had no idea I was "different" than
>>anyone else until I took a freshman psych course at college and the
>>phenomenon was described.  In a nutshell, loud noises present themselves as
>>bursts of light--color determined by fequency; bright flashing lights
>>produce a not-altogether-unpleasant (usually) percussive sound--I love
>>looking at blue and red police lights because they stongly stimulate two
>>senses concurrently.
>>
>>I guess the purpose of this rambling missive is to encourage you to
>continue
>>to expect much possibility from Alex.  Like many others on this list, I too
>>was labeled virtually and permanently "vegatative" as a young lad.  I'm
>glad
>>my parents had the courage to persevere.
>>
>>-Kyle
>
>Kyle,
>
>        In all my studies on CP, I have never before heard of this
>phenomenon.
>You have enlightened me on this. I knew about walking and visual perception
>early on, but this aural/visual reversal is the first time I've heard of it.
>My wife has no sense of direction whatsoever. I just wrote it off as her
>growing up sheltered and living in a world of 2 dimensional books. I, on
>the other hand, grew up in San Antonio having a pretty much Huckleberry
>Finn existence, since both my parents worked long and odd hours. I would
>explore the air base one day
>(much to the dismay of the Air Police) and run the river walk another day.
>I saw them pull a body of a woman out of the river with multiple stab
>wounds. I now have a good sense of direction and a morbid outlook from
>being exposed to the adult world probably too soon for a healthy emotional
>development. I saw more
>in the 6th through the 8th grades than my children saw in their entire life,
>discounting TV, of course. These were my "Special Education" years which,
>paradoxically, lived up to its billing!!
>
>Bobby