Neonatal Synesthesia: Implications for the Processing of Speech And Faces

A re-analysis of the published literature and new data of my own support the hypothesis that babies confuse the input from different senses. That synesthetic mixing leads to (1) apparent cross-modal matching, which becomes more difficult to demonstrate with increasing age; (2) responses from primary cortical areas to input from the “wrong” senses; (3) shifting visual preferences; and (4) the summation of sensory inputs in determining the baby’s …