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| Synesthesia | |
|---|---|
| Name | Synesthesia |
| Field | Neuroscience, Psychology |
Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway elicits automatic, involuntary experiences in a second pathway. It is characterized by consistent cross-modal associations such as seeing colors in response to letters, hearing colors in response to sounds, or tasting shapes in response to words. Research spans work by clinicians, psychologists, neuroscientists, and artists across institutions and cultural contexts.
Synesthetic experiences have been studied by figures and institutions such as Francis Galton, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, W. D. Hamilton, Richard Cytowic, V. S. Ramachandran, Simon Baron-Cohen, Oliver Sacks, Cambridge University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University College London, Max Planck Society, Columbia University, Yale University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, University of Chicago, McGill University, Karolinska Institute, University of Amsterdam, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Los Angeles, King's College London, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, University of Sydney, Australian National University, National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, European Research Council, and projects housed at museums such as the Smithsonian Institution and Tate Modern. Historical and contemporary case studies include accounts by Charles Baudelaire, Wassily Kandinsky, Proust, Marcel, Vladimir Nabokov, David Hockney, Billy Joel, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Björk, Kurt Cobain, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Geoffrey Holder, Arthur Rimbaud, Gustav Mahler, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Richard Wagner, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich.
Common forms include grapheme–color, sound–color (chromesthesia), lexical–gustatory, number–form, mirror–touch, and ordinal linguistic personification. Reports link to experiences described by Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Feynman, Franklin Roosevelt, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Mann, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Noam Chomsky, John Searle, Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace, Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Dorothy Hodgkin.
Hypotheses involve atypical cross-activation, disinhibited feedback, and structural connectivity differences in regions such as the inferior temporal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, and parietal cortex. Neuroimaging and electrophysiology studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University College London, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Columbia University, Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, UCL Institute of Neurology, NIH, Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging implicate white-matter tracts and cortical columns. Genetic studies reference familial aggregation in pedigrees studied at University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Toronto, Stanford University, Princeton University, and consortia funded by European Research Council. Computational models draw on frameworks developed by researchers associated with MIT Media Lab, DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, IBM Research, Microsoft Research, and theoretical constructs linked to Claude Shannon, Alan Turing, Norbert Wiener, David Marr, Noam Chomsky, Gerald Edelman.
Prevalence estimates vary across surveys led by teams at University of Sussex, Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of Manchester, King's College London, University of York, University of Leeds, University of Birmingham, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, University of Cape Town, University of Nairobi, University of São Paulo, University of Buenos Aires, Peking University, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, Seoul National University, University of Hong Kong, University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Auckland, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, University of Iceland, University of Helsinki, Lund University, and national health surveys from agencies like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health England, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Statistics Canada, and Eurostat. Onset often occurs in childhood with links to developmental conditions investigated at centers such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Boston Children's Hospital, and clinics affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Synesthetic associations can affect memory, creativity, attention, and sensory discrimination, with empirical work from laboratories at Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Diego, University of Pennsylvania, McGill University, University of British Columbia, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Duke University, University of Michigan, Columbia University, Brown University, Cornell University, New York University, Rutgers University, University of Southern California, University of Florida, University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Vanderbilt University, and Emory University. Clinical intersections with conditions treated at Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Royal London Hospital, and research centers for autism at The Autism Research Centre are areas of active study.
Assessment methods include consistency tests, questionnaire batteries, psychophysical measures, and neuroimaging protocols developed at University College London, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Los Angeles, Max Planck Institute, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, NIH Clinical Center, Kings College Hospital, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Royal Free Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and cognitive testing platforms developed in collaboration with Apple Inc., Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, Sony.
Synesthesia has influenced literature, visual arts, music, and design, shaping work by creators linked to institutions and movements such as Bauhaus, Surrealism, Cubism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Dada, Modernism, Romanticism, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical period (music), and cultural sites like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Louvre, Guggenheim Museum, Centre Pompidou, Royal Academy of Arts, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum, Prado Museum, Hermitage Museum, Uffizi Gallery, National Gallery, Getty Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Tate Britain, and festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Biennale, Sundance Film Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, South by Southwest, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Burning Man, SXSW, Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Woodstock, Lollapalooza, Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, BBC Proms, Bayreuth Festival. Artists and musicians noted for synesthetic-like reports include Wassily Kandinsky, David Hockney, Vladimir Nabokov, Björk, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Arvo Pärt, Olivier Messiaen, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, U2.