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Research on Synaesthesia Can you taste the shape of greeny-lemon sounds?
The Russian writer Nabokov could do it, the composers Scriabin and Rimsky-Korsakov could also do it--as could the artist Kandinsky. What they all were able to do, is something that many of us cannot do; that is combine some of their five senses so that, for example, sounds and colours can be associated.
The association of senses in this way is called `synaesthesia’. This is not a metaphorical linking of the senses, as in `singing the blues’, but is so real that, for example, the sound of a violin might also look red--as if one were gazing at a red wall.
University of Southampton psychology student, Phineas Head, is currently researching synaesthesia and is looking for people with this gift to take part in a new study. `Synaesthesia is an extremely rare gift possessed by only a very few lucky people, ‘ says Phineas. `For a synaesthete who links the sound of a violin with the colour red, the visual image is as vivid and real as looking at a pillar-box. Each different synaesthete has their own unique associations. For one person, the word ‘Tuesday’ may be blue, and for another, red, but their particular association will have been with them for their whole life and will never change. The colour of the note G# was the subject of much discussion between the composers Scriabin and Rimsky-Korsakov!’
He adds `Synaesthesia is much more than just a good memory, although it can help memory, and synaesthetes are people with very remarkable and very special brains. Not a lot is known about why or how synaesthesia happens, which is why we would like to speak to people who have this ability.
`To anyone to whom the linking of colours and sounds is familiar, and who thinks they might have this gift, I would like to extend an invitation to participate in our study at the University’s Psychology Department. The experiment will involve hearing sounds and clicking on a palette of colours on a computer screen--but you don't have to experienced in computers to do this!’
Enquiries can be made to Phineas Head by email on pah196@soton.ac.uk or telephone (01703) 593995--mentioning the synaesthesia experiment and his name. It is also possible for people living outside Southampton to participate via the World Wide Web (site address available from the above number).
For further information
Phineas Head, Department of Psychology, University of Southampton (01703) 593995 (mentioning the synaethesia experiment), email pah196@soton.ac.uk
Sarah Watts, Public Affairs, University of Southampton (01703) 593807 |
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