This thesis presents the current knowledge about synesthesia as a specific mode of perception where a sensation (i.e. an inducer) induces another sensation which is not actually present (i.e. a concurrent). Special attention is paid to lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, a special type of synesthesia in which taste is the concurrent (word > taste). The empirical part of the thesis is devoted to practical research of lexical-gustatory synaesthesia among Czech native speakers. It describes the methodology of data collection including a questionnaire survey and the selection of respondents. The core and main benefit of the thesis lies in the detailed descriptions of four selected lexical-gustatory synaesthetes with whom we conducted a one-hour interview questioning the nature of their experiences. The information obtained from this research together with realted related the findings from the literature are summarized in the conclusion of this thesis.

Our senses take in a large amount of information, information that sometimes is congruent across sensory modalities. Crossmodal correspondences are the study of how this information across modalities is integrated by the brain, across which dimensions the correspondences exists, and how it affect us. In the present paper four experiments were conducted, in which potential crossmodal correspondences between audition, vision and olfaction were investigated. It was hypothesized that crossmodal correspondences between olfaction, vision and audition exist along different dimensions. The results showed significant correlations between olfaction and audition when volume varies, i.e., a high volume is associated to a high concentration of an odor, and a low volume is associated to a low concentration of an odor, and vice versa. Furthermore, existing correspondences between vision and audition is reconfirmed. In conclusion, the results provide support to the notion that crossmodal correspondences exists between all sensory modalities, although along different dimensions.

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Après avoir longtemps ignoré le domaine des émotions, la neuropsychologie clinique reconnait aujourd’hui son intrication avec le domaine cognitif et son importance dans le suivi des patients cérébrolésés, chez lesquels des difficultés à reconnaître les émotions perturbent la qualité des échanges interpersonnels et la cognition sociale. Cette thèse porte sur la reconnaissance de cinq émotions de base (joie, peur, colère, tristesse, dégoût) et d’une expression neutre dans deux groupes de patients, avec gliome de bas grade et après accident vasculaire cérébral. L’évaluation recourt à deux modalités non verbales visuelles et auditives et une condition intermodale. Pour mieux comprendre le fonctionnement émotionnel des patients avec gliome, nous avons analysé les compétences émotionnelles de trois d’entre eux. Les résultats de nos recherches objectivent des difficultés modérées de reconnaissance des émotions en modalités visuelle et auditive pour les deux populations avec des déficits plus discrets chez les patients avec gliome de bas grade que chez les patients après accident vasculaire cérébral. Ces résultats confirment la pertinence de la théorie d’organisation hodotopique du cerveau pour les processus émotionnels comme pour les autres domaines cognitifs. Le bénéfice comportemental constaté pour les deux groupes en présentation intermodale ne suffit cependant pas toujours à normaliser les résultats, ce qui implique de probables répercussions quotidiennes. Ce travail souligne l’importance de l’évaluation des émotions non seulement reconnues, mais aussi ressenties, dans le suivi des patients cérébrolésés, notamment ceux qui souffrent de tumeurs d’évolution lente. / Emotional domain was ignored for a long time, but today clinical neuropsychology acknowledges its overlapping with the cognitive domain and its importance in the follow-up of brain-damage patients, where difficulties in emotion recognition reduce the quality of interpersonal interactions and social cognition. The present thesis focuses on the recognition of five basic emotions (happiness, fear, anger, sadness, disgust) and of a neutral expression in two groups of patients with low-grade gliomas and post-stroke. The experimental protocol, which requires visual and auditory non-verbal processing, also includes a crossmodal condition. Three case studies of patients with gliomas allow us to refine our understanding of their emotional functioning. Our results show moderate visual and auditory difficulties in emotion recognition for both groups, with lower deficits in the glioma group than in the post-stroke group. These results confirm the relevance of a hodotopical view of the brain for emotional processes as in other cognitive domains. However, the behavioral benefit of crossmodal presentation observed in both groups is not sufficient to sustain normal results, which is likely to impact daily life. We highlight the necessity of evaluating emotion recognition as well as emotion experience in brain damage patients, in particular when they suffer from slowly infiltrating tumours.

Cette thèse interroge le dialogue théorique et pratique entre les sens et le design. En éclairant les échanges qui s’instaurent entre les sciences contemporaines de la perception et les nouvelles approches sensorielles du design, elle laisse apparaître un paradigme inédit de la création et de la cognition. Elle montre qu’un modèle de design sensible émerge sous l’impulsion de nouveaux modèles cognitivistes de la perception, qui vient transformer les domaines de la création. Les arts plastiques investissent les sens corporels, amplifiés par les technologies ; l’architecture remet en cause la tradition visiocentrée de l’espace, et s’ouvre une conception spatiale de type atmosphérique. À la frontière de ces mouvements, surgit un paradigme du design focalisé sur la relation tangible et multisensorielle entre l’homme et le monde de l’artificiel. Grâce à la réhabilitation des sens pragmatiques, les théories antidualistes de la perception, en conjonction avec les sciences cognitives et les technologies numériques, inspirent la conception d’artefacts orientés vers l’engagement corporel et les relations matérielles. L’obsolescence du modèle des cinq sens permet de revisiter scientifiquement des phénomènes comme les synesthésies, la plasticité perceptive et les correspondances sensorielles. Le dépassement de l’idée de sens entendus comme des organes récepteurs, conduit à considérer les aspects immatériels de la perception, tels que l’expressivité et l’intentionnalité attribuées aux choses. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse explore la manière dont la sensorialité redevient un sujet de recherche et de création. Entre philosophie, psychologie expérimentale et histoire de l’art et du design, elle interroge le modèle rationaliste du design et montre que l’émergence de ce nouveau paradigme est motivée par l’exigence de s’affranchir du modèle industriel guidé par la relation visuelle et fonctionnelle de la forme et des usages. Suivant un cheminement non nécessairement linéaire, la recherche se concentre sur les moments clés et les figures majeures du dialogue entre design moderne et théories des sens, et montre que ce dernier, engagé depuis la Renaissance, n’a cessé d’alimenter les relations entre perception et arts du disegno. / This thesis examines the theoretical and practical dialogue between design and the senses. Shedding light on the exchanges taking place between the contemporary sciences of perception and the new sensorial approaches of design, it reveals a new paradigm of creation and cognition. The thesis puts forward the emergence of a sensitive design model promoted by new cognitivist models of perception, transforming the domains of creation. Magnified by technology, contemporary arts are permeating the bodily senses; while architecture challenges the visually centered tradition of space, and an atmospheric conception of space opens up.Emerging at the marches of these movements is a paradigm of design focused on the tangible, multi-sensorial relationship between the human world and the artificial world. Anti-dualist theories of senses, coupled with cognitive sciences and digital technologies, conceive artifacts that are inclined towards material relationship and involvement of the body, made possible by the rehabilitation of pragmatic senses. Obsolescence of the five senses model allows the scientific rediscovery of several phenomena such as synesthesia, perceptive plasticity and sensorial interactions. Surpassing the notion of senses as mere receptive functions, leads us to examine the immaterial aspects of perception, such as expressiveness and intentionality attributed to things.In this context, this thesis explores how sensoriality becomes once again a subject for research and creation. Overlapping philosophy, experimental psychology, and the history of art and design, it questions the rationalist model of design; it also shows how the need for freedom from the industrial model, as lead by the visual and functional relationship between form and usage, brings about the emergence of a new paradigm.Following a not essentially linear path, the research focuses on key moments, along with the major features of a dialogue between modern design and theories of the senses ; this dialogue, initiated since the Renaissance, never stopped nourishing the relationships between perception and arts of the disegno.