Neuroscience
For the first time, psychologists have documented the prevalence of a form of synaesthesia - the condition that leads to a mixing of the senses - in a large sample of children. Over a twelve month period, Julia Simner and colleagues tested 615 children aged six to seven years at 21 UK schools and conservatively estimated that 1.3 per cent of them had grapheme-colour synaesthesia, in which letters and numbers involuntarily trigger the sensation of different colours.
"[This] implicates over 170,000 children age 0–17 in the UK alone, and over 930,000 in the USA," the researchers said, "and suggests that the average primary school in England and Scotland (n = 168 pupils) contains 2.2 grapheme-colour synaesthetes at any time, while the average-sized US primary school (n = 396 pupils) contains 5.1." Inevitably, the prevalence for synaesthesia as a whole, considering all the sub-types, would be even higher.
A hall-mark of grapheme-colour synaesthesia is that the colour triggered by a given letter or number is always the same - a fact the researchers exploited to identify the condition in school children.
Indeed, when asked to associate letters with colours, the children identified as synaesthetes showed more consistency over a 12-month-period than the other children did over a ten second period!
The study also showed how synaesthetic associations develop over time. The children with synaesthesia had an average of 10.5 reliable grapheme-colour associations when first tested aged six to seven, compared with 16.9 when tested a year later.
"It is not known whether the developmental pattern shown by our synaesthetes (i.e. 6.4 new coloured graphemes per year) represents a linear acquisition, or whether greater gains are made in later years," the researchers said, "...our lab is currently tracking the development of this group to follow their transition into adult-like consistency."
- When Orgasm Triggers A Light Show - The First Ever Study Of Synaesthetic Sex
For people with synaesthesia, stimulation of one sense - or in some cases just thinking of a particular concept - triggers another kind of sensory experience. The most common form of the condition is for letters to trigger colour perceptions, but there...
- What Colour Is Your Breast-stroke? Or Why Synaesthesia Is More About Ideas Than Crossed-senses
People with synaesthesia experience odd sensations that make it seem as though their neural wires are crossed. A certain word might always come served with the same particular taste, or a letter or numeral might reliably evoke the same particular colour....
- When Castanets Taste Of Tuna
Words have sensory connotations to most of us. The word leathery really does feel ...well, rather leathery. But to some synaesthetes – people who experience a cross-over of the senses – such analogies are literal and can relate to tastes. That is,...
- "how Sour Sweet Music Is..."
"How sour sweet music is..." Shakespeare wrote in his play Richard II "...when time is broke and no proportion kept!". The musician known to researchers as E.S. can probably sympathise with this quote more than most - she consistently experiences specific...
- Tony Blair Tastes Like Desiccated Coconut...
...and 'George Bush is like crusty potato' James Wannerton, president of the UK Synaesthesia Association, explains how the condition which "mixes the senses" affects his life. He is speaking at a conference in Edinburgh where scientists and...
Neuroscience
How common is synaesthesia among children?
For the first time, psychologists have documented the prevalence of a form of synaesthesia - the condition that leads to a mixing of the senses - in a large sample of children. Over a twelve month period, Julia Simner and colleagues tested 615 children aged six to seven years at 21 UK schools and conservatively estimated that 1.3 per cent of them had grapheme-colour synaesthesia, in which letters and numbers involuntarily trigger the sensation of different colours."[This] implicates over 170,000 children age 0–17 in the UK alone, and over 930,000 in the USA," the researchers said, "and suggests that the average primary school in England and Scotland (n = 168 pupils) contains 2.2 grapheme-colour synaesthetes at any time, while the average-sized US primary school (n = 396 pupils) contains 5.1." Inevitably, the prevalence for synaesthesia as a whole, considering all the sub-types, would be even higher.
A hall-mark of grapheme-colour synaesthesia is that the colour triggered by a given letter or number is always the same - a fact the researchers exploited to identify the condition in school children.
Indeed, when asked to associate letters with colours, the children identified as synaesthetes showed more consistency over a 12-month-period than the other children did over a ten second period!
The study also showed how synaesthetic associations develop over time. The children with synaesthesia had an average of 10.5 reliable grapheme-colour associations when first tested aged six to seven, compared with 16.9 when tested a year later.
"It is not known whether the developmental pattern shown by our synaesthetes (i.e. 6.4 new coloured graphemes per year) represents a linear acquisition, or whether greater gains are made in later years," the researchers said, "...our lab is currently tracking the development of this group to follow their transition into adult-like consistency."
Link to earlier Digest items on synaesthesia.
_________________________________
J. Simner, J. Harrold, H. Creed, L. Monro, L. Foulkes (2008). Early detection of markers for synaesthesia in childhood populations. Brain, 132 (1), 57-64 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awn292
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
_________________________________
J. Simner, J. Harrold, H. Creed, L. Monro, L. Foulkes (2008). Early detection of markers for synaesthesia in childhood populations. Brain, 132 (1), 57-64 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awn292Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- When Orgasm Triggers A Light Show - The First Ever Study Of Synaesthetic Sex
For people with synaesthesia, stimulation of one sense - or in some cases just thinking of a particular concept - triggers another kind of sensory experience. The most common form of the condition is for letters to trigger colour perceptions, but there...
- What Colour Is Your Breast-stroke? Or Why Synaesthesia Is More About Ideas Than Crossed-senses
People with synaesthesia experience odd sensations that make it seem as though their neural wires are crossed. A certain word might always come served with the same particular taste, or a letter or numeral might reliably evoke the same particular colour....
- When Castanets Taste Of Tuna
Words have sensory connotations to most of us. The word leathery really does feel ...well, rather leathery. But to some synaesthetes – people who experience a cross-over of the senses – such analogies are literal and can relate to tastes. That is,...
- "how Sour Sweet Music Is..."
"How sour sweet music is..." Shakespeare wrote in his play Richard II "...when time is broke and no proportion kept!". The musician known to researchers as E.S. can probably sympathise with this quote more than most - she consistently experiences specific...
- Tony Blair Tastes Like Desiccated Coconut...
...and 'George Bush is like crusty potato' James Wannerton, president of the UK Synaesthesia Association, explains how the condition which "mixes the senses" affects his life. He is speaking at a conference in Edinburgh where scientists and...