Synaesthesia: the prevalence of atypical cross-modal experiences.

Full Abstract

Sensory and cognitive mechanisms allow stimuli to be perceived with properties relating to sight, sound, touch, etc, and ensure, for example, that visual properties are perceived as visual experiences, rather than sounds, tastes, smells, etc. Theories of normal development can be informed by cases where this modularity breaks down, in a condition known as synaesthesia. Conventional wisdom has held that this occurs extremely rarely (0.05% of births) and affects women more than men. Here we present the first test of synaesthesia prevalence with sampling that does not rely on self-referral, and which uses objective tests to establish genuineness. We show that (a) the prevalence of synaesthesia is 88 times higher than previously assumed, (b) the most common variant is coloured days, (c) the most studied variant (grapheme-colour synaesthesia)--previously believed most common--is prevalent at 1%, and (d) there is no strong asymmetry in the distribution of synaesthesia across the sexes. Hence, we suggest that female biases reported earlier likely arose from (or were exaggerated by) sex differences in self-disclosure.

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Author information

Author/s: Simner, Julia (J); Mulvenna, Catherine (C); Sagiv, Noam (N); Tsakanikos, Elias (E); Witherby, Sarah A (SA); Fraser, Christine (C); Scott, Kirsten (K); Ward, Jamie (J);

Affiliation: Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. j.simner(-atsign-)ed.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Perception (Perception), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-; vol 35 (issue 8) : pp 1024-33

Dates: Created 2006/11/01; Completed 2007/05/17;

PMID: 17076063, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Chi-Square Distribution
Child
Color Perception
Cues
Female
Humans
Male

Male
Music
Perceptual Disorders - diagnosis; psychology
Prevalence
Questionnaires
Reading
Self Disclosure
Sex Factors

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