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Understanding Synaesthesia in Reading

The document discusses synesthesia, a rare condition where individuals perceive letters and numbers in different colors, as exemplified by a man referred to as 'WO'. Recent studies have confirmed that synesthetic perceptions are real and not merely imagined, with evidence suggesting that the condition may arise from cross-wiring in the brain. The condition is genetically transmitted and is particularly common among creative individuals, with many people keeping it secret due to fear of being seen as odd.

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Morris OET
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21 views2 pages

Understanding Synaesthesia in Reading

The document discusses synesthesia, a rare condition where individuals perceive letters and numbers in different colors, as exemplified by a man referred to as 'WO'. Recent studies have confirmed that synesthetic perceptions are real and not merely imagined, with evidence suggesting that the condition may arise from cross-wiring in the brain. The condition is genetically transmitted and is particularly common among creative individuals, with many people keeping it secret due to fear of being seen as odd.

Uploaded by

Morris OET
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Bands 6.5–7.

Unit 2 Reading

Do you see what I see?


Remarkably, some people have a rare condition that means they see numbers and letters in different colours.

A
Even as a child, the man known as ‘WO’ knew he wasn’t like other children. Letters, numbers and words
all had distinct colours. To him, a page of black print didn’t look black at all. It was a symphony of colour.
The number 2 was bright orange, 5 was green and so on. His mother understood. She knew words had
colours because she, too, could see them. Both WO (as he is anonymously referred to in a recent study)
and his mother had something known as synesthesia, which causes some people to hear colours, feel
sounds and taste shapes. Scientists have known about synesthesia for over 300 years, but it wasn’t taken
all that seriously until recently. People who claimed to hear colours were dismissed as imagining things,
or worse.

B
A decade ago, neurologist Richard E. Cytowic chronicled a number of case studies in a popular book,
The Man Who Tasted Shapes, and scientists realised the time was ripe to reopen the case of synesthesia.
New testing procedures and the latest medical equipment designed to identify areas in the brain that
are active during various conditions, could allow them to see if there really was anything to all this. As it
turns out, there is. WO really does see the number 3 as bright orange. Furthermore, there are thousands
of others around the world who see it in colour as well, although these colours are not the same for
everyone. It is a concept that is quite difficult for the rest of us to grasp. ‘It’s like trying to describe colour
to someone who can’t see colour,’ says Thomas J. Palmieri, a psychologist and lead author of an article
about WO’s case.

C
The condition, which is genetically transmitted across generations, can affect anyone, but is especially
common among highly talented and creative people. In his earlier research, Cytowic documented a
number of cases, some going back many years. The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov was just one
example. As a child, he complained to his mother that the colours of the letters on his wooden alphabet
blocks were all wrong.

No one knows just how many people have the condition, but it could be as many as one person out of
every 300. The number is vague for obvious reasons. Many people keep quiet about it out of fear of being
regarded as odd. And those who have it tend to like it, so they don’t feel a need to seek out medical
help. They believe that to take it away from them would be to deprive them of a special sense that may
improve memory, and possibly stimulate creative instincts.

Photocopiable © Cambridge University Press 2013 1 Unit 2 Reading


Bands 6.5–7.5

D
But do they really see, or hear, or feel what they claim to, or is it all just in the imagination? That is the
question that Palmieri wanted to answer, so he decided to examine WO more closely. Since WO claimed
that plain black letters and words appeared to him in vivid colours, Palmieri and his team of researchers
devised a number of experiments to see if the perception claimed by WO was genuine or whether it was
imaginary. They drew up a list of 100 common words, and asked WO to tell them the colour of each word.
The following month they repeated the experiment. He got it right 97 per cent of the time. The only
time he missed was with the easily confused colours of off-white, beige and light brown. He was then
shown pages of black numbers. In one test, a few 5s were interspersed among 2s and he was asked to
pick out the 5s. Since they stood out as a different colour, he completed the task in a fraction of the time
required for people without the condition. Those and other tests led the researchers to conclude that the
condition was real. Next, parts of the numbers were presented separately to each eye. WO didn’t see the
colour with just part of the number and one eye. It took the use of both eyes viewing the number in its
complete form to produce the colour. So the colour came only after his brain reassembled the parts.

E
‘This strongly suggests,’ Palmeri says, ‘that his synesthetic associations take place after information
from both eyes has been combined.’ Some researchers, including Vilayanur Ramachandran, Director of
the Brain and Perception Laboratory at the University of California in San Diego, believe the condition
may result from ‘cross wiring’ of the brain. He notes that the area of the brain that detects colours is
adjacent to the area that handles letters and numbers. Perhaps, he suggests, people like WO simply
pick up information from one mental data stream and blend it into another. But whatever the cause,
Ramachandran has collected convincing evidence that the perceptions claimed by people with
synesthesia are real.

This is good news for those with synesthesia, as they now have the proof that they are not imagining
things. And it is particularly good news for WO, who says he managed to sail through medical school
partly because of his condition. All those long words in biology and anatomy that are so hard to
remember came easier to him, because if he forgot the letters, he could at least remember the colours.

Unit 2 Reading 2 © Cambridge University Press 2013 Photocopiable

Common questions

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Scientific validation offers significant psychological relief and societal recognition for individuals with synesthesia. It affirms that their experiences are not hallucinations or figments of imagination, which can help alleviate feelings of isolation or self-doubt. For many, such as WO, this confirmation provides a sense of pride in their unique perception and validates the cognitive benefits they've experienced from their condition .

Synesthesia tends to be genetically transmitted across generations, with some cases documented historically among creative individuals. It is particularly common among highly creative and talented people, which suggests a possible link between synesthesia and creativity. This condition may enhance creative instincts and improve memory which might explain why creative figures, such as novelist Vladimir Nabokov, have experienced it .

Synesthesia is thought to involve 'cross-wiring' in the brain where connections between adjacent brain areas lead to cross-modal sensory experiences. For instance, the areas responsible for detecting colors and processing letters and numbers are adjacent in the brain. This proximity may allow individuals to blend information from these separate data streams, suggesting a neurological basis for their concurrent sensory perceptions .

Individuals like WO report that synesthesia provides cognitive advantages, such as improved memory and learning capabilities. WO specifically found it easier to navigate the challenges of medical school because the synesthetic colors made it easier to remember complex biological and anatomical terms, thereby acting as a mnemonic aid .

Synesthesia challenges traditional views of sensory perception by demonstrating that senses can be interconnected rather than isolated. This interconnectedness, as individuals with synesthesia experience, allows the perception of one sensory input to trigger an automatic and involuntary sensory response. Such experiences complicate our understanding of sensory processing by showing that cognitive interrelations exist beyond conventional sensory confines .

Individuals with synesthesia often choose to conceal their condition due to fear of being deemed unusual or odd. Since the condition is not typically perceived as a deficit and those who have it generally enjoy the enhanced perception without seeking medical help, they rarely disclose it. This underreporting likely skews the estimation of its prevalence, making it difficult to ascertain the true number of people affected, estimated at possibly one in 300 .

The reality of synesthetic experiences is supported by experiments showing consistent and accurate color-word associations by individuals like WO. In one study, WO was able to correctly identify the colors he associated with 97% of 100 common words over a one-month interval. Furthermore, synesthetic perception only occurred when both eyes were used to view complete images, indicating that the phenomenon arose from post-processing in the brain. Ramachandran's research also supports synesthesia as cross-wiring in the brain's adjacent regions responsible for processing color and letters/numbers .

Experiments revealed that synesthetic color associations are highly consistent over time. For example, WO accurately identified the colors he associated with common words 97% of the time in repeated tests, suggesting a stable and persistent sensory association .

Historically, synesthesia was misunderstood and oft-dismissed as imaginary, making it difficult for the condition to gain scientific legitimacy. The attitudes toward synesthesia have shifted more recently due to advancements in neurological testing and significant case studies documented in works like 'The Man Who Tasted Shapes.' These changes have allowed the scientific community to recognize synesthesia as a real and documentable phenomenon, marking a shift from skepticism to acceptance .

Synesthesia is a rare condition where individuals perceive numbers, letters, or words in specific colors. In the case of WO, a person documented in recent studies, this condition means that plain text appears to him as a 'symphony of color,' with specific numbers and letters consistently associated with particular colors (e.g., the number 2 appears bright orange). This association is automatic and consistent over time .

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