We live in a rich multisensory environment, in which we experience a continuous stream of sensory information coming from different sensory modalities, such as vision, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Our brains constantly encode, filter, and integrate that sensory information, and generate a unified perception of the world. However, how the brain processes and binds those sensory inputs are still unknown. Crossmodal correspondence refers to the tendency for normal observers to match distinct features or dimensions of experience across different sensory modalities (e.g., “bouba-kiki” effect). There has been a rapid growth of research interest in crossmodal correspondence over the last two decades. More and more crossmodal correspondences, within-modal correspondences, associations between sensory dimensions and concepts, and experiences have been identified. The congruency effect of crossmodal correspondences on facilitating sensory processing has also been highlighted.

Cake products with highly acceptable flavor and mouthfeel are not always successful in the marketplace. Sales of identical cake products sold in two different bakery shops often differ. Patrons’ choices of specific cake items differ depending on menu designs at restaurants. Such examples suggest that consumer behavior related to eating, preparing, or purchasing foods and beverages is typically complex, dynamic, and sensitive to environmental cues surrounding them. The nine original research articles and two systematic review articles addressed in this book provide recent informative and insightful findings on how sensory cues related to eating/drinking environmental contexts can serve as “sensory nudges” that induce healthy eating and drinking along with consumer satisfaction.

The structure of the book is designed to provide a comprehensive exploration of the principles of neuromarketing and their application to the wine production industry in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Overall, the structure of the book is designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the principles of neuromarketing and their application to the wine industry, with a particular emphasis on the role of color in consumer decision-making processes

This two-volume set LNCS 13971 + 13972 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Information for a Better World: Normality, Virtuality, Physicality, Inclusivity, held in March 2023. The 36 full papers and the 46 short papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 197 submissions. They cover topics such as: Archives and Records, Behavioral Research, Information Governance and Ethics, AI and Machine Learning, Data Science, Information and Digital literacy, Cultural Perspectives, Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital, Social Media and Digital Networks, Libraries, Human-Computer Interaction and Technology, Information Retrieval, Community Informatics, and Digital Information Infrastructure.

Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon which has captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. This inherited condition gives rise to a kind of 'merging of the senses', and so for those who experience it, everyday activities like reading or listening to music trigger extraordinary impressions of colours, tastes, smells, shapes and other sensations. Synesthesia research also informs us about normal sensation because all people experience cross-sensory mappings to an implicit degree. Synesthesia has a considerably broad appeal, and in recent decades the field has experienced a resurgence of interest. These advances have painted a detailed story about the development, genetics, psychology, history, aesthetics and neuroscience of synesthesia, and provide a contemporary source of study for a new generation of scholars. The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia brings together this broad body of knowledge into one definitive state-of-the-art handbook. It includes a large number of concisely written chapters, under broader headings, which tackle questions about the origins of synesthesia, its neurological basis, its links with language and numbers, attention and perception, and with 'normal' sensory and linguistic processing. It asks questions about synesthesia's role in language evolution, and presents both contemporary and historical overviews of the field. It shows synaesthesia's costs and benefits (e.g., in creativity, memory, imagery) and describes how synaesthesia can provide inspiration for artists and designers. The book ends with a series of perspectives on synesthesia, including a first-hand account, and philosophical viewpoints which show how synaesthesia poses unique questions about sensation, consciousness and the nature of reality.

The present Research Topic explores closely related aspects of mental functioning, namely an interplay between perception and cognition, interactions among various sensory modalities, and finally, more or less unified conscious experiences arising in the context of these relations. Contributions emphasize a high flexibility observed in perception and may be seen as potential challenges to the traditional modular architecture of perceptual systems. Although the articles describe different phenomena, they follow one common theme - to investigate broadly understood unified experience - by studying either perception-cognition integration or the integration between sensory modalities. These integrative processes may well apply to subpersonal unconscious representations. However, the aim here is to approach phenomenal experience and thus a straightforward way of thinking about it is in terms of conscious perception. Putting together scientific and philosophical concerns, this special issue encourages extending the study of perceptual experience beyond the single sense perception to advance our understanding of the complex interdependencies between different sensory modalities, other mental domains, and various kinds of unifying relations within conscious experience. It exhibits a remarkable need to study these phenomena in tangent, and so, the authors examine a variety of ways in which our perceptual experiences may be cross-modal or multisensory, integrated, embodied, synesthetic, cognitively penetrated, or otherwise affected by top-down influences. The Research Topic comprises theoretical and empirical contributions of such fields as philosophy of mind, cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience in the form of hypothesis and theory articles, original research articles, opinion papers, reviews, and commentaries.

The Value of Design in Retail and Branding creates a much-needed bridge between different disciplines involved in retail design, bringing together a range of research and insights for practice in these disciplines, improving the impact of design.

Sensory Individuals: Unimodal and Multimodal Perspectives provides an interdisciplinary, well-balanced, and comprehensive look at different aspects of unisensory and multisensory objects, using both nuanced philosophical analysis and informed empirical work. The research presented in this book represents the field's progression from treating neural sensory processes as primarily modality-specific towards its current state of the art, according to which perception, and its supporting neural processes, are multi-modal, modality-independent, meta-modal, and task-dependent. Even within such approaches sensory stimuli, properties, brain activations, and corresponding perceptual phenomenology can still be characterized in a modality-specific way. The book examines the basic building blocks of human perception, and whether they are best understood as sensory modality dependent units of different forms or multimodal perceptual objects. The book combines a variety of innovative and integrative angles to explore the topic and acts as a catalyst for an increasingly diverse field of research, which is in an exciting phase of growth and advancement. New questions are arising as quickly as they are being answered, and the collection Sensory Individuals provides an original and up-to-date addition to the field.

Multisensory Perception: From Laboratory to Clinic surveys the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes, synthesizing information from diverse streams of research and defining hypotheses and questions to direct future work. Reflecting the nature of the field, the book is interdisciplinary, comprising the findings and views of writers with diverse backgrounds and varied methods, including psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches. Sections cover basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, the topic of crossmodal correspondences between particular sensory attributes, the related topic of synesthesia, and the clinic. - Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes - Coverage includes basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, crossmodal correspondences and the clinical aspects of multisensory processes - Includes psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches

This volume provides a state-of-the-art summary of the emerging field of sonic seasoning research, whereby music/soundscapes are specifically chosen, or else designed/composed, in order to correspond crossmodally to, and hence potentially modify, the associated taste/flavour of food and beverages.