“We’ve discussed synesthesia many times before on Cognitive Daily — it’s the seemingly bizarre phenomenon when one stimulus (e.g. a sight or a sound) is experienced in multiple modalities (e.g. taste, vision, or colors). For example, a person might experience a particular smell whenever a given word or letter is seen or heard. Sometimes particular faces are associated with specific colors or auras. Synesthesia is relatively rare, but the people who experience it are genuine: their perceptions are consistent and replicable.
But one question researchers haven’t been able to nail down is exactly how synesthesia occurs. Consider the relatively common form of synesthesia, where colors are perceived along with words. One synesthete consistently sees the color green when she hears someone say “neat.” Does the synesthetic experience occur when she first detects the word, or only after she understands its meaning?
A team led by Gary Bargary has figured out a new way to test when a synesthetic experience occurs by relying on the McGurk Effect. In the McGurk effect, the word you “hear” someone saying changes depending on what you see.”
Check out the link below with a movie giving a quick demonstration of the phenomenon.
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Aren’t milder ‘symptoms’ of synastesia a fairly standard feature of the human brain. For me each day of the week has a solid connection with a certain colour – all different. However, it’s not like whenever I read the word Tuesday I think of, or see, blue… it’s just in my imagination the word Tuesday is intrinsically blue, Wednesday green, Thursday purple. Numbers 0-9 have this going on too but to a less definite, solid degree.
Isn’t is a simple associated learning ‘trick’ of our brains to assist in our thinking? I assume it being rare is referring to those in whom it’s become abnormally over-developed. As a cognitive mechanism I would argue it’s common, just with varying development.
Apologies for my ultra-cool way of spelling synesthesia
Graham, the thing that you describe is not a mild case of synesthesia, but rather a common case of association. This is completely distinct from the experience of synesthesia. Say someone experienced synesthesia in the form of hearing a different tone for each different number they saw. This person would not be merely experiencing a strong association with that sound, but would be actually hearing it in a way that would be indistinguishable from hearing the sound reproduced genuinely, say, by a computer.
It is a very strange thing. Apparently people with forms of synesthesia like the one I used in my example, when presented with a sequence of numbers, hear a chord, or a sequenced tune. How awesome is that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsfidRq2tw this video might illustrate the effect a little better.
Listen to the video link with your eyes closed, and the McGurk effect is eliminated. If you do that, you will realize that he is NOT saying the same thing both times!
Graham – I have read many people’s colours for the days of the week, yours is the first so far to match mine, please continue with the other days! Friday is yellow, yes?
I haven’t read the full paper yet but I wonder if it distinguishes between projector/associator, lower/higher, or localised/non-localised synaesthestes, because it is thought that they perceive colours differently, i.e. some are affected by the sound and some by the meaning of the word.