Richard E. Cytowic is an American

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

and author who rekindled interest in

synesthesia Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who re ...

in the 1980s and returned it to mainstream science. He was nominated for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

for his ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' cover story about

James Brady James Scott Brady (August 29, 1940 – August 4, 2014) was an American public official who served as assistant to the U.S. president and the seventeenth White House Press Secretary, serving under President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, Brady b ...

, the Presidential Press Secretary shot in the brain during the assassination attempt on

President Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. Cytowic’s writing ranges from textbooks and music reviews, to his ''

Metro Weekly ''Metro Weekly'' is a free weekly magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Washington, D.C., United States. It was first published on May 5, 1994. ''Metro Weekly'' includes national and local news, interviews w ...

'' "Love Doctor" essays and brief medical biographies of

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

. His work is the subject of two BBC Horizon documentaries, “Orange Sherbert Kisses” (1994) and “Derek Tastes of Earwax” (2014). In '' Musicophilia'',

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...

writes:

In the 1980, Richard Cytowic made the first neurophysiological studies of synesthetic subjects... In 1989, he published a pioneering text, ''Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses'', and this was followed by a popular exploration of the subject in 1993, ''
The Man Who Tasted Shapes ''The Man Who Tasted Shapes'' is a book by neurologist Richard Cytowic about synesthesia. Summary The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, Cytowic describes his chance encounter during a dinner party on February 10, 1980 with MW, ...
''. Current techniques of functional brain imaging now give unequivocal evidence for the simultaneous activation or coactivation of two or more sensory areas of the cerebral cortex in synesthetes, just as Cytowic’s work predicted.

Of ''

Wednesday is Indigo Blue ''Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia'' is a 2009 non-fiction book written by Richard Cytowic and David Eagleman documenting the current scientific understanding of synesthesia, a perceptual condition where an experienc ...

'', co–authored by Cytowic and David Eagleman, Sacks said, “Their work has changed the way we think of the human brain, and tis a unique and indispensable guide for anyone interested in how we perceive the world.” The book won the 2011 Montaigne Medal. Cytowic is a Professor of Neurology at

George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (abbreviated as GW Medical School or SMHS) is the professional medical school of the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. SMHS is one of the most selective medi ...

, a Mentor at the Point Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Board for

Williams Institute The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy, usually shortened to Williams Institute, is a public policy research institute based at the UCLA School of Law focused on sexual orientation and gender ident ...

at the

UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...

Biography

Cytowic was born on December 16, 1952 in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's "Super Nana Marge", Tim Tebow's No. 1 fan. As a child, Cytowic liked taking things apart and putting them back together to figure out how they worked. He attended

Hun School of Princeton The Hun School of Princeton is a private, coeducational, secondary boarding school located in Princeton in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. The school serves students from sixth through twelfth grades. Currently, the head of school is ...

(class of 1970), graduated cum laude from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, and received his M.D. from Wake Forest's

Bowman Gray School of Medicine Bowman may refer to: Places Antarctica * Bowman Coast * Bowman Island * Bowman Peninsula Australia * Bowman Park, a park in South Australia * Bowmans, South Australia, a locality * Division of Bowman, an electoral district for the Australian H ...

. He studied further at

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's Queen Square (Institute of Neurology), and George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences before founding a private clinic, Capitol Neurology. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

(2011). Retired from clinical practice, Cytowic now mentors medical students at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, writes academic and popular nonfiction, and lectures at museums and cultural institutions worldwide such as the Istanbul Biennial. With installation artis
Marcos Lutyens
he designed an interactive project at the Los Angeles Main Museum, �
A Semantic Survey of Emotions
” During his

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

years, he served as music critic for the ''

Winston-Salem Journal The ''Winston-Salem Journal'' is an American, English language daily newspaper primarily serving Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, North Carolina. It also covers Northwestern North Carolina. The paper is owned by ...

''.

Works

;Books * ''Synesthesia'' (2018). Cambridge: MIT Press, Essential Knowledge Series. * ''The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia'' (2014). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. *''

: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia'' (with

David Eagleman David Eagleman (born April 25, 1971) is an American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator. He teaches neuroscience at Stanford University and is CEO and co-founder of Neosensory, a company that develops devices for sensory substituti ...

), Foreword by

Dmitri Nabokov Dmitri Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: Дми́трий Влади́мирович Набо́ков; May 10, 1934February 22, 2012) was an American opera singer and translator. Born in Berlin, he was the only child of Russian parents: author Vlad ...

(2009). Cambridge: MIT Press. *''

The Man Who Tasted Shapes ''The Man Who Tasted Shapes'' is a book by neurologist Richard Cytowic about synesthesia. Summary The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, Cytowic describes his chance encounter during a dinner party on February 10, 1980 with MW, ...

'' (2003). Cambridge: MIT Press. *''Synesthesia: A Union of The Senses, 2nd edition'' (2002). Cambridge: MIT Press. *''The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology'' (1996). Cambridge: MIT Press. *''Nerve Block For Common Pain'' (1990). New York: Springer Verlag. ;Reviews and essays *Selected book reviews available a
the New York Journal of Books.
*Selected ''Love Doctor'' essays availabl
here.
*Chekhov and Ravel articles availabl
here.
;Lectures *Tw
TED-Ed lessons
on "What Percentage of Your Brain Do You Use?" and "What Color is Tuesday?" *A filme
gallery talk on synesthesia
at Washington's

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...

, given as part of its

visual music Visual music, sometimes called colour music, refers to the creation of a visual analogue to musical form by adapting musical structures for visual composition, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods o ...

exhibit. *A PBS conversatio
between Dr. Cytowic and Dr. Richard Frakowiak
(London). *Selecte
Television and Radio
appearances.

Artistic fellowships

* Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences,

Rabun Gap, Georgia Rabun Gap is an unincorporated community in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. The community is located along U.S. Route 23/441 south of Dillard. Rabun Gap has a post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides ...

. Founded on the estate of

Jay Hambidge Jay Hambidge (1867–1924) was a Canadian-born American artist who formulated the theory of "dynamic symmetry", a system defining compositional rules, which was adopted by several notable American and Canadian artists in the early 20th century. ...

, the architect and mathematician who conceived of "Dynamic Symmetry". * Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Fellow, Virginia Center for Creative Arts

References

Notes

External links

* *''Symposium on Synesthesia'' i
''Psyche: an interdisciplinary journal of research on consciousness''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cytowic, Richard American medical writers American male non-fiction writers American memoirists American neuroscientists American science writers Synesthesia Duke University alumni Hun School of Princeton alumni Writers from Trenton, New Jersey 1952 births Living people George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences faculty