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Why do some people perceive words and numbers as
colours? |
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As many as one in
2000 people has an extraordinary condition in which the five senses
intermingle. This major two part series reveals how synaesthesia is
changing our understanding of the world of
neuroscience.
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| How one
synaesthete sees 'Saturday' |
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We all wonder at some
point whether other people experience their surroundings in the same
way we do. Do they hear the same things and see the same colours?
People with synaesthesia really do experience the world differently.
New scientific research shows that the condition can take a variety
of forms. Some see colours and patterns when they hear music or
words. Others 'taste' words. People with the most common form of
synaesthesia - or 'syn' as they sometimes refer to it - perceive
words, letters and numbers as distinct colours. Most synaesthetes
find their condition enriching. But for others, it can be unsettling
- sounds produce uncomfortable colours, words provoke odd tastes.
For neuroscientists, modern technology is at last making it possible
to study synaesthesia, and revealing in the process a great deal
about how the brain processes sensory information in all of us.
In a two part series, writer and broadcaster Georgina Ferry
explores the condition of synaesthesia, and the impact it is having
on the way in which scientists understand perception. Each programme
features people who live with this fascinating condition, as well as
psychologists and neuroscientists conducting groundbreaking
research.
1. Pale yellow Cs, turquoise
Thursdays
and wine-flavoured Vs
The programme explores the astonishing range of synaesthetic
characteristics revealed by current case studies of people with the
condition. It looks at the different forms which synaesthesia takes
and examines the wealth of sensory data now accessible to
scientists. Examples of these case studies include James Wannerton
who tastes spoken words - the flavours of words are very specific:
mince, apricots, tomato soup, even earwax; and Jane Mackay who sees
shapes and and colours when she hears music and then paints what she
sees.
Studies now reveal that there is a high ratio of women
to men with synaesthesia and that the condition may be inherited -
one famous instance of this was the writer Vladimir Nabokov. He
married a fellow synaesthete and their son Dimitri also has
synaesthesia. He's one artist who is now thought to have been a
genuine synaesthete, but there are many who deliberately cultivated
a heightened perception for extra artistic effect: our culture is
littered with poets, artists and musicians, including Rimbaud,
Baudelaire, Kandinsky, Messaien and Scriabin who have claimed to
have synaesthesia. Today, thanks to fMRI (functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging), neuroscientists are able to prove that
synaesthetic experience is a genuine phenomenon. What's more, this
new evidence is allowing the scientific community to explore the
implications for the way all of our brains work.
Listen
again available after the broadcast
 Listen again to Programme
1 | |
