ANU researchers have shed new light on synesthesia. Credit: The Health Blog, Flickr
Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have shed new light on synesthesia - the effect of hearing colours, seeing sounds and other cross-sensory phenomena.
Lead Researcher, ANU Research School of Psychology's Dr Stephanie Goodhew, said the research found synaesthetes had much stronger mental associations between related concepts.
"For them words like 'doctor' and 'nurse' are very closely associated, where 'doctor' and 'table' are very unrelated. Much more so than for people without the condition," she said.
The findings could help researchers better understand the mysteries of synaesthesia, which Dr Goodhew said affects an estimated one in every 100 people.
Dr Goodhew said synesthetes have stronger connections between different brain areas, particularly between what we think of as the language part of the brain and the colour part of the brain. Those connections lead to a triggering effect, where a stimulus in one part of the brain would cause activity in another.
"Things like hearing shapes, so a triangle will trigger an experience of a sound or a colour, or they might have a specific taste sensation when they hear a particular sound," she said.
"One person reported that smells have certain shapes. For example the smell of fresh air is rectangular, coffee is a bubbly cloud shape and people could smell round or square."
The research centred on measuring the extent that people with Synesthesia draw meaning between words.
"Going in we were actually predicting that synesthetes might have a more concrete style of thinking that does not emphasise conceptual-level relations between stimuli, given that they have very rigid parings between sensory experiences.
"We found exactly the opposite," Dr Goodhew said.
More information: "Enhanced semantic priming in synesthetes independent of sensory binding," Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 33, May 2015, Pages 443-456, ISSN 1053-8100, http://ift.tt/1FqjZcO
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ANU researchers have shed new light on synesthesia. Credit: The Health Blog, Flickr
Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have shed new light on synesthesia - the effect of hearing colours, seeing sounds and other cross-sensory phenomena.
Lead Researcher, ANU Research School of Psychology's Dr Stephanie Goodhew, said the research found synaesthetes had much stronger mental associations between related concepts.
"For them words like 'doctor' and 'nurse' are very closely associated, where 'doctor' and 'table' are very unrelated. Much more so than for people without the condition," she said.
The findings could help researchers better understand the mysteries of synaesthesia, which Dr Goodhew said affects an estimated one in every 100 people.
Dr Goodhew said synesthetes have stronger connections between different brain areas, particularly between what we think of as the language part of the brain and the colour part of the brain. Those connections lead to a triggering effect, where a stimulus in one part of the brain would cause activity in another.
"Things like hearing shapes, so a triangle will trigger an experience of a sound or a colour, or they might have a specific taste sensation when they hear a particular sound," she said.
"One person reported that smells have certain shapes. For example the smell of fresh air is rectangular, coffee is a bubbly cloud shape and people could smell round or square."
The research centred on measuring the extent that people with Synesthesia draw meaning between words.
"Going in we were actually predicting that synesthetes might have a more concrete style of thinking that does not emphasise conceptual-level relations between stimuli, given that they have very rigid parings between sensory experiences.
"We found exactly the opposite," Dr Goodhew said.
More information: "Enhanced semantic priming in synesthetes independent of sensory binding," Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 33, May 2015, Pages 443-456, ISSN 1053-8100, http://ift.tt/1FqjZcO
Medical Xpress on facebook
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A longitudinal study of grapheme-color synaesthesia in childhood
What colour is H? Is 4 brighter than 9? For most people these questions might seem baffling, but not for people with grapheme-color synesthesia.
How the visual system balances sustained and segregated representations
(Medical Xpress)—The human brain is faced with challenges every day. These may be challenges that you are conscious of, like trying to solve a mathematical equation or learning a new language.
Scientific evidence proves why healers see the 'aura' of people
Researchers in Spain have found that many of the individuals claiming to see the aura of people –traditionally called "healers" or "quacks"– actually present the neuropsychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia" ...
Brain study explores what makes colors and numbers collide
Someone with the condition known as grapheme-color synesthesia might experience the number 2 in turquoise or the letter S in magenta. Now, researchers reporting their findings online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on Nov ...
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Delicate magnolia scent activates human pheromone receptor
The question if humans can communicate via pheromones in the same way as animals is under debate. Cell physiologists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have demonstrated that the odorous substance Hedione activates the putative ...
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Inspiration came to engineering professor Mike Noseworthy while listening to the radio.
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By directly recording electrical activity from the human brain, neuroscientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that distinct, distant groups of brain areas that support memory retrieval ...
Depolarizing wave may trigger sudden death in epilepsy
A slow, depolarizing electrical wave – sometimes called a "brain tsunami" – may be the hidden cause of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, a disorder that kills as many as 4,000 people in the United ...
Can arts, crafts and computer use preserve your memory?
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