Seeing sounds: researchers uncover molecular clues for synaesthesia

Seeing sounds: researchers uncover molecular clues for synaesthesia
Do you taste or smell colors? See colors when listening music...or perhaps you can see digits and letters floating and in vivid colors like me ;) If so, this article is for you.

One in twenty-five people have synaesthesia, perceiving the world in unusual ways. An experience with one sense automatically leads to perception in another sense: for example, seeing colors when listening to music. Now researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the University of Cambridge report clues into biological origins of such variations in human perception. They studied families with synaesthesia, and describe genetic changes that might contribute to their differences in sensory experience.

“Brain imaging of adults with synaesthesia suggests that their circuits are wired a little differently compared to people who don't make these extra sensory associations. What we don’t know yet is how these differences develop,” said Dr. Amanda Tilot, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. “We suspect some of the answers lie in people's genetic makeup.”

Read the article:
https://www.mpg.de/11964360/seeing-sounds-researchers-uncover-molecular-clues-for-synaesthesia

To better understand these findings, the team is looking for new families and individuals to join their study. You can take a short online test to find out if you experience a common form of synaesthesia.
http://www.mpi.nl/departments/language-and-genetics/projects/decoding-the-genetics-of-synaesthesia/genetics-of-synaesthesia

#neuroscience #synaesthesia #research #brain