Experiencing a color when viewing particular letters or numbers – known as color-graphemesynesthesia – may partly be a learned behavior, say Stanford researchers who uncovered startlingly similar color-letter pairings shared by a number of color grapheme synesthetes who played with the same childhood toy. Researchers Nathan Witthoft and Jonathan Winawer based their findings, appearing inPsychological […]
Spanish researchers say that healers who claim to be able to see the auras surrounding people are actually suffering synesthesia, the neuropsychological phenomenon where senses become intermingled in the brain. In synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are cross-wired; they may see or taste a sound, feel […]
Carried by a surprisingly large 4 percent of the population, scientists David Brang and VS Ramachandran have been pondering why the synesthesia gene is preserved in the human race and what evolutionary advantage it might provide. In a discussion paper, published inPLoS Biology, the researchers suggest that the gene may deliver an advantage through enhanced […]
