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For the ambient music album see Synesthetic (album)

Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae) -- from the Greek syn- meaning union and aesthesis meaning sensation -- is a neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled. In a form of synesthesia known as grapheme → color synesthesia, letters or numbers may be perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. While cross-sensory metaphors are sometimes described as "synesthetic," true neurological synesthesia is involuntary and occurs in slightly more than four percent of the population (1 in 23 persons) across its range of variants (Simner et al.). It runs strongly in families, possibly inherited as an X-linked dominant trait. Synesthesia is also sometimes reported by individuals under the influence of psychedelic drugs, after stroke or as a consequence of blindness or deafness. Synesthesia that arises from such non-genetic events is referred to as adventitious synesthesia to distinguish it from the more common congenital forms of synesthesia.

Research history

Although synesthesia was the topic of intensive scientific investigation in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was largely abandoned in the mid-20th century, and has only recently been rediscovered by modern researchers. Psychological research has demonstrated that synesthetic experiences can have measurable behavioral consequences, while functional neuroimaging studies have identifed differences in patterns of brain activation (for a review see Hubbard & Ramachandran 2005). Many people with synesthesia use their experiences to aid in their creative process, and many non-synesthetes have attempted to create works of art that may capture what it is like to experience synesthesia. Psychologists and neuroscientists study synesthesia not only for its inherent interest, but also for the insights it may give into cognitive and perceptual processes that occur in everyone, synesthete and non-synesthete alike.

Definitional criteria

Synesthesia, like all sensory phenomenon, is different for every individual. There are a great number of types of synesthesia, and within each type, individuals report differing sensations and situations. This variety means that defining synesthesia in an individual is difficult, and indeed, many synesthetes are not aware that their sensations have a name. However, despite the differences between individuals, there are a few common elements that define a true synesthetic experience.

Neurologist Richard Cytowic identifies the following diagnostic criteria of synesthesia (Cytowic 2002, pp. 67–69; Cytowic 2003, pp. 76–77):

Synesthesia is involuntary and automatic.
Synesthetic images are spatially extended, meaning they often have a definite 'location'.
Synesthetic percepts are consistent and generic (i.e. simple rather than imagistic).
Synesthesia is highly memorable.
Synesthesia is laden with affect.

Kevin Dann adds two more (Dann 1998, pp. 6–7):

Synesthesia is nonlinguistic and somewhat ineffable.
Synesthesia occurs in people with normal, noninjured, nondiseased brains.

Synesthetic experiences

Synesthetes often report that they were unaware their experiences were unusual until they realized other people did not have them, while others report feeling as if they had been keeping a secret their entire lives. The automatic and ineffable nature of a synesthetic experience means that the pairing may not seem out of the ordinary. This involuntary and consistent nature helps define synesthesia as a real experience. Most synesthetes report that their experiences are pleasant, or simply there, although in rare cases synesthetes report that their experiences can lead to a degree of sensory overload (Day 2005).

"One day," I said to my father, "I realized that to make an 'R' all I had to do was first write a 'P' and then draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line."
— Writer Patricia Lynne Duffy, recalling an early experience.^[1]

Despite the commonalities which permit definition of the broad phenomenon of synesthesia, it should also be noted that individual experiences vary in numerous ways. This variability was first noticed in the early days of synesthesia research (Flournoy 1893) but has only recently come to be appreciated by modern researchers. Some grapheme → color synesthetes report that the colors seem to be "projected" out into the world, while most report that the colors are experienced in their "mind's eye" (Dixon, Smilek & Merikle 2004). Additionally, some grapheme → color synesthetes report that they experience their colors strongly, and show perceptual enhancement on the perceptual tasks described below, while others (perhaps the majority) do not (Hubbard et al. 2005a), perhaps due to differences in the stage at which colors are evoked. Some synesthetes report that vowels are more strongly colored, while for others consonants are more strongly colored (Day 2005). The descriptions below give some idea of the experiences of synesthetes, but cannot fully capture their rich variety.

Types of synesthesia

Synesthesia can occur between nearly any two senses or perceptual modes. Given the large number of forms of synesthesia, researchers have adopted a convention of indicating the type of synesthesia by using the following notation x → y, where x is the "inducer" or trigger experience, and y is the "concurrent" or additional experience. For example, perceiving letters and numbers (collectively called graphemes) as colored would be indicated as grapheme → color synesthesia. Similarly, when synesthetes see colors and movement as a result of hearing musical tones, it would be indicated as tone → (color, movement) synesthesia.

While nearly every possible combination of experiences is logically possible, several types are more common than others.

Grapheme → color synesthesia

How someone with synesthesia might perceive (not "see") certain letters and numbers.

In one of the most common forms of synesthesia, grapheme → color synesthesia, individual letters of the alphabet and numbers (collectively referred to as graphemes), are "shaded" or "tinged" with a color. While no two synesthetes will report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies of large numbers of synesthetes find that there are some commonalities across letters (e.g., A is likely to be red) (Day 2005; Simner et al. 2005).

A grapheme → color synesthete reports, "I often associate letters and numbers with colors. Every digit and every letter has a color associated with it in my head. Sometimes, when letters are written boldly on a piece of paper, they will briefly appear to be that color if I'm not focusing on it. Some examples: "S" is red, "H" is orange, "C" is yellow, "J" is yellow-green, "G" is green, "E" is blue, "X" is purple, "I" is pale yellow, "2" is tan, "1" is white. If I write SHCJGEX it registers as a rainbow when I read over it, as does ABCPDEF."^[2]

Music → color synesthesia

In music → color synesthesia, individuals experience colors in response to tones or other aspects of musical stimuli (e.g., timbre or key). Like grapheme → color synesthesia, synesthetes rarely report the same colors for given tones, but individuals are internally consistent. Tested months later, a synesthete will report the same experiences as they had previously reported.

Color changes in response to pitch may involve more than just the hue of the color. Lightness (the amount of black in a color, red with black may appear brown), saturation (the intensity of the color, candy red is highly saturated, while pink is unsaturated), and hue may all be affected to varying degrees (Campen & Froger 2003). Additionally, music → color synesthetes, unlike grapheme → color synesthetes, often report that the colors move, or stream into and out of their field of view.

Number form synesthesia

File:GaltonNumberForm.png

A number form from one of Francis Galton's (1881b) subjects. Note the convolutions, and how the first 12 digits correspond to a clock face.

A number form is a mental map of numbers, which automatically and involuntarily appear whenever someone who experiences number-forms thinks of numbers. Number forms were first documented and named by Francis Galton in The Visions of Sane Persons (Galton 1881a). Later research has identified them as a type of synesthesia (Seron, Pesenti & Noël 1992; Sagiv et al. 2006b). In particular, it has been suggested that number-forms are a result of "cross-activation" between regions of the parietal lobe that are involved in numerical cognition and spatial cognition (Ramachandran & Hubbard 2001; Hubbard et al. 2005b). In addition to its interest as a form of synesthesia, researchers in numerical cognition have begun to explore this form of synesthesia for the insights that it may provide into the neural mechanisms of numerical-spatial associations present unconsciously in everyone.

Personification

Ordinal-linguistic personification (OLP, or personification for short) is a form of synesthesia in which ordered sequences, such as ordinal numbers, days, months and letters are associated with personalities. Although this form of synesthesia was documented as early as the 1890s (Flournoy 1893; Calkins 1893) modern research has, until recently, paid little attention to this form.

"T’s are generally crabbed, ungenerous creatures. U is a soulless sort of thing. 4 is honest, but… 3 I cannot trust… 9 is dark, a gentleman, tall and graceful, but politic under his suavity"
— Synesthetic subject report in Calkins 1893, p. 454

"I [is] a bit of a worrier at times, although easy-going; J [is] male; appearing jocular, but with strength of character; K [is] female; quiet, responsible..."
— Synesthetic subject MT report in Cytowic 2002, p. 298

For some people in addition to numbers other ordinal sequences, objects are sometimes imbued with a sense of personality, sometimes referred to as a type of animism. This type of synesthesia is harder to distinguish from non-synesthetic associations. However, recent research has begun to show that this form of synesthesia co-varies with other forms of synesthesia, and is consistent and automatic, as required to be counted as a form of synesthesia.

Lexical → gustatory synesthesia

In a rare form of synesthesia, lexical → gustatory synesthesia, individual words and phonemes of spoken language evoke the sensations of taste in the mouth.

Whenever I hear, read, or articulate (inner speech) words or word sounds, I experience an immediate and involuntary taste sensation on my tongue. These very specific taste associations never change and have remained the same for as long as I can remember.
— James Wannerton^[3]

Jamie Ward and Julia Simner have extensively studied this form of synesthesia, and have found that the synesthetic associations are constrained by early food experiences (Ward & Simner 2003; Ward, Simner & Auyeung 2005). For example, James Wannerton has no synesthetic experiences of coffee or curry, even though he eats them regularly as an adult. Conversely, he tastes certain breakfast cereals and candies that are no longer sold.

Additionally, these early food experiences are often paired with tastes based on the phonemes in the name of the word (e.g., /I/, /n/ and /s/ trigger James Wannerton’s taste of mince) although others have less obvious roots (e.g., /f/ triggers sherbet). To show that phonemes, rather than graphemes are the critical triggers tastes, Ward and Simner showed that, for James Wannerton, the taste of egg is associated to the phoneme /k/, whether spelled with a c (e.g., accept), k (e.g., York), ck (e.g., chuck) or x (e.g., fax). Another source of tastes comes from semantic influences, so that food names always taste of the food they match, and the word blue tastes "inky".

History of synesthesia research

Although there were previous mentions of synesthesia, the phenomenon was first brought to the attention of the scientific community in the 1880s by Francis Galton (Galton 1880a; Galton 1880b; Galton 1883). Following these initial observations, research into synesthesia proceeded briskly, with researchers from England, Germany, France and the United States all investigating the phenomenon. However, due to the difficulties in assessing and measuring subjective internal experiences, and the rise of behaviorism in psychology, which banished any mention of internal experiences, the study of synesthesia gradually waned during the 1930s.

In the 1980s, as the cognitive revolution had begun to make discussion of internal states and even the study of consciousness respectable again, scientists began to once again examine this fascinating phenomenon. Led in the United States by Larry Marks and Richard Cytowic, and in England by Simon Baron-Cohen and Jeffrey Gray, research into synesthesia began by exploring the reality, consistency and frequency of synesthetic experiences. In the late 1990s, researchers began to focus on grapheme → color synesthesia, one of the most common (Day 2005; Rich, Bradshaw & Mattingley 2005) and easily studied forms of synesthesia. In 2006, the journal Cortex published a special issue on synesthesia, composed of 26 articles. Synesthesia has been the topic of numerous scientific books, as well as novels and short films that include characters who experience some form of synesthesia.

During the 1990s, with the rise of the internet, synesthetes started to contact each other, and create many webpages relating to the condition (see External links below). These early internet and e-mail contacts have now grown into several international organizations for synesthetes, including the American Synesthesia Association, the UK Synaesthesia Association, the Belgian Synaesthesia Association, and the now defunct International Synaesthesia Association.

Prevalence and genetic basis

Estimates of the prevelance of synesthesia have varied widely (from 1 in 20 to 1 in 20,000). However, these studies all suffered from the methodological shortcoming of relying on self-selected samples. That is, the only people included in the studies were those who reported their experiences to the experimenter. Simner et al., (in press) conducted the first random population study, arriving at a prevalence of 1 in 23. Recent data suggests that grapheme → color, and days of the week → color variants are most common (Day 2005; Simner et al.).

Almost every study that has investigated the topic has suggested that synesthesia clusters within families, consistent with a genetic origin for the condition. The earliest references to the familial component of synesthesia date to the 1880s, when Francis Galton first described the condition in Nature. Since then, other studies have supported this conclusion. However, early studies (Baron-Cohen et al. 1993; Baron-Cohen et al. 1996) which claimed a much higher prevalence in women than in men (up to 6:1) most likely suffered from a sampling bias due to the fact that women are more likely to self-disclose than men. More recent studies, using random samples find a sex ratio of 1.1:1 (Simner et al.).

The observed patterns of inheritance have suggested an X-linked mode of inheritance, although research into the genetics of synesthesia is still preliminary. There are no documented instances of father-to-son transmission, while other forms of transmission (father-to-daugher, mother-to-son and mother-to-daughter) are quite common (Baron-Cohen et al. 1996; Cytowic 2002; Ward & Simner 2005). Pairs of identical twins have been identified where only one member of the pair experiences synesthesia (Smilek et al. 2002b; Smilek, Dixon & Merikle 2005) and it has been noted that synesthesia can skip generations within a family (Hubbard & Ramachandran 2003), consistent with models of incomplete penetrance. Additionally, Simner et al. (in press) note that it is quite common for synesthetes within a family to experience different types of synesthesia, suggesting that the gene or genes involved in synesthesia do not lead to specific types of synesthesia. Rather developmental factors such as gene expression and environment must also play a role in determining which types of synesthesia an individual synesthete will experience.

Demonstrating the reality of synesthesia

Proof that someone is a synesthete is easy to come by, and hard to "fake." The simplest test involves test-retest reliability over long periods of time. Synesthetes consistently score higher on such tests than non-synesthetes (either with color names, color chips or even a color picker providing 16.7 million color choices). Synesthetes may score as high as 90% consistent over test-retest intervals of up to one year, while non-synesthetes will score 30-40% consistent over test-retest intervals of only one month, even if warned that they are going to be retested (e.g., Baron-Cohen et al. 1996).

More specialized tests include using modified versions of the Stroop effect. In the standard Stroop paradigm, it is harder to name the ink color of the word "red" when it is printed in blue ink than if it is presented in red ink. This demonstrates that reading is "automatic." Similarly, if a grapheme → color synesthete is presented with the digit 4 that he or she experiences as red, but presented in blue ink, he or she is slower to identify the ink color. Not because the synesthete cannot see the blue ink, but rather that the same sort of "response conflict" that is responsible for the standard Stroop effect is also occurring between the color of the ink and the automatically induced color of the grapheme. Similar variants of the Stroop effect can be devised where, for example, a music → color synesthete is asked to name a red color patch while listening to a tone that produces a blue sensation (Ward, Tsakanikos & Bray 2006), or where a musical key → taste synesthete is asked to identify a bitter taste while hearing a musical interval that induces a sweet taste (Beeli, Esslen & Jäncke 2005).

An example of a test used to demonstrate the reality of synesthetic experiences (from Ramachandran & Hubbard 2001).

Finally, studies of grapheme → color synesthesia have demonstrated that synesthetic colors can improve performance on certain visual tasks, at least for some synesthetes. Inspired by tests for color blindness, Ramachandran and Hubbard (2001) presented synesthetes and non-synesthetes with displays composed of a number of 5s, with some 2s embedded among the 5s. These 2s could make up one of four shapes; square, diamond, rectangle or triangle. For a synesthete who sees 2s as red and 5s as green, their synesthetic colors help them to find the "embedded figure". Subsequent studies have explored these effects more carefully, and have found that 1) there is substantial variability among synesthetes (Dixon, Smilek & Merikle 2004; Hubbard et al. 2005a) and 2) while synesthesia is evoked early in perceptual processing, it does not occur prior to attention (e.g., Edquist et al. 2006; Sagiv, Heer & Robertson 2006a).

Possible neural basis

Regions thought to be cross-activated in grapheme-color synesthesia (from Ramachandran & Hubbard 2001).

Theories of the neural basis of synesthesia start from the observation that there are dedicated regions of the brain that are specialized for certain functions. Based on this notion of specialized regions, some researchers have suggested that increased cross-talk between different regions specialized for different functions may account for different types of synesthesia. For example, since regions involved in the identification of letters and numbers lie adjacent to a region involved in color processing (V4), the additional experience of seeing colors when looking at graphemes might be due to "cross-activation" of V4 (Ramachandran & Hubbard 2001). This cross-activation may arise due to a failure of the normal developmental process of pruning.

Alternatively, synesthesia may arise though "disinhibited feedback" or a reduction in the amount of inhibition along feedback pathways (Grossenbacher & Lovelace 2001). Normally, the balance of excitation and inhibition are maintained. However, if normal feedback were not adequately inhibited, then signals coming from later multisensory stages of processing might influence earlier stages of processing, such that tones would activate visual cortical areas in synesthetes more than in non-synesthetes. In this case, it might explain why some users of psychedelic drugs such as LSD or mescaline report temporary synesthetic experiences while under the influence of the drug.

Functional neuroimaging studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have demonstrated significant differences between the brains of synesthetes and non-synesthetes. recent studies using fMRI have demonstrated that V4 is more active in both word → color and grapheme → color synesthetes (Nunn et al. 2002; Hubbard et al. 2005a; Sperling et al. 2006). However, these neuroimaging studies do not have the spatial and temporal resolution necessary to distinguish between the pruning and disinhibited feedback theories.

Associated cognitive traits

Very little is known about the overall cognitive traits associated with synesthesia (or, indeed if there are any cognitive traits that are consistently associated with synesthesia). Some studies have suggested that synesthetes are unusually sensitive to external stimuli (see, e.g., Cytowic 2002). Other possible associated cognitive traits include left-right confusion, difficulties with math, and difficulties with writing (Cytowic 2002).

However, synesthetes may be more likely to participate in creative activities (Rich, Bradshaw & Mattingley 2005), and some studies have suggested a correlation between synesthesia and creativity (Domino 1989; Dailey, Martindale & Borkum 1997). Other research has suggested that synesthesia may contribute to superior memory abilities (Luria 1968; Smilek et al. 2002a). However, it is unclear whether this is a general feature of synesthesia or whether it is true of only a small minority. This is a major topic of current and future research.

Links with other areas of study

This picture is used as a test to demonstrate that people may not attach sounds to shapes arbitrarily: A remote tribe calls one of these shapes **Booba** and the other **Kiki.** Decide which is which and then click the image to check your answer.

Researchers study synesthesia not only because it is inherently interesting, but also because they hope that studying synesthesia will offer new insights into other questions, such as how the brain combines information from different sensory modalities, referred to as crossmodal perception and multisensory integration. One example of this is the "kiki/bouba effect" (see image at right). This example was first explored by the Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Köhler. With individuals on the island of Tenerife, Kohler showed a similar preference between shapes called "takete" and "maluma". Recent work by Daphne Maurer and colleagues has shown that even children as young as 2.5 (too young to read) show this effect (Maurer, Pathman & Mondloch 2006). Ramachandran and Hubbard (2001) have argued that this effect might be the neurological basis for sound symbolism, in which sounds are non-arbitrarily mapped to objects and events in the world.

Similarly, synesthesia researchers hope that, because of their unusual conscious experiences, the study of synesthesia will provide a window into better understanding consciousness and in particular on the neural correlates of consciousness, or what the brain mechanisms that allow us to be conscious might be. In particular, some researchers have argued that synesthesia is relevant to the philosophical problem of qualia (see, e.g., Gray et al. 2002; Gray et al. 1997; Ramachandran & Hubbard 2001), since synesthetes experience additional qualia evoked through non-typical routes.

Synesthesia in art

*Vision* by Carol Steen; Oil on Paper; 15 x 12-3/4 inches; 1996. A representation of a synesthetic vision the artist experienced during acupuncture treatment.

"Synesthesia in art" can refer to two distinct meanings:

Art by synesthetes, in which they draw on their personal synesthetic perceptions to create works of art.
Art that is meant to evoke synesthetic associations in a non-synesthetic audience.

This distinctions is not mutually exclusive, as, for example, art by a synesthete might also evoke synesthesia-like experiences in the viewer. However, it should not be assumed that all "synesthetic" art accurately reflects the synesthetic experience. For more on artists who either were synesthetes themselves, or who attempted to create synesthesia-like mappings in their art, see the famous synesthetes page. The latter category is sometimes referred to as artificial synesthesia.

Synesthesia in literature

In addition to its role in art, synesthesia has often been used as a plot device or as a way of developing a particular character's internal states. Below is a short list of books in which one of the main characters is portrayed as experiencing synesthesia. For more details, see the synesthesia in literature page.

Berry, M. (2005). Blind Crescent. Toronto: Penguin
Huysmans, J.-K. (1959). Against Nature. London: Penguin Books.
Moore, J. (2004). The Memory Artists. Toronto: Penguin.
Kernan, B. M. (2002). The Synesthete. Lincoln, NE: Writer's Showcase.
Morall, C. (2004). Astonishing Splashes of Colour. Harper Collins.
Nabokov, V. (1991/1938). The Gift. New York: Vintage.
Payne, H. (2005). The Sound of Blue. New York: Penguin Group.
Parker, T. J. (2006). The Fallen. New York: William Morrow.
Vaz, K. (1994). Saudade. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Vian, B. (2003). Foam of the Daze. Tam-Tam Books. (former translation: Mood Indigo.)
Yardley, J. (2003). Painting Ruby Tuesday. London: Doubleday.

Teenage/children’s

Mass, W. (2003). A Mango-Shaped Space. London: Little Brown and Co.
Morgan, N. (2003). Mondays are Red. New York: Delacorte

Famous synesthetes

There is a great deal of debate about whether or not synesthesia can be identified through historical sources. Below is a short list famous synesthetes confirmed on the basis of at least two historical sources. For further elaboration on these and others, see the famous synesthetes page.

Amy Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944), American pianist and composer. Musical keys → color.
Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974), composer and pianist. Timbre → color.
Richard Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988), physicist. Graphemes → color.
David Hockney (born July 9, 1937), artist. Music → color.
György Ligeti (May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006), composer. Grapheme → color.
Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886), composer. Music → color.
Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992), composer and organist. Chordal structure → color.
Vladimir Nabokov (April 22, 1899 – July 2, 1977), author. Grapheme → color.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (March 6, 1844 – June 8, 1908), composer. Musical keys → color.
Jean Sibelius (December 8, 1865 – September 20, 1957), composer. Sound → color.
Michael Torke (born September 22, 1961), composer. Multiple synesthesiae.

Sean A. Day, a synesthete, and the President of the American Synesthesia Association, also maintains a list of famous synesthetes, "pseudosynesthetes" and individuals who are most likely not synesthetic, but who used synesthesia in their art or music.

External links

Synesthesia associations

Synesthesia community sites

Scientific resources

The Synesthesia Battery: take the tests to discover if you are synesthetic. Developed by David Eagleman, PhD.
Richard E. Cytowic, MD Downloads and information.
Edward M. Hubbard, PhD Synesthesia research including pdf versions of scientific articles.
Crétien van Campen 'Artistic and psychological experiments with synesthesia' gives the historical background.
Synaesthesia and Education: a research project at the University of Cambridge investigating the effects of grapheme-colour synesthesia on numerical processing in children.
Museums of the Mind, a synesthesia portal by Dr. Hugo Heyrman, more specific on the interaction between art and synesthesia.