What Color is the Number 7?

Chris Gorski and Jim Dawson, Inside Science News

Service, LiveScience.com

Researchers from Israel, England, and Spain collaborated

on a project that demonstrated that people with average

brains are capable of having synesthetic experiences,

meaning that triggering one of the senses causes the

involuntary use of another.

Examples of this phenomenon include when people

consistently see a certain numerical digit as a certain

color or when hearing a certain sound triggers the

experience of a certain taste.

The findings, published in the journal Psychological

Science, contradict the prevailing belief that synesthesia

results only within people who have extra synaptic

connections in their brain.

Using a technique called posthypnotic suggestion, the

researchers showed that it is possible to induce people to

have synesthetic experiences. One test to confirm that

the participants were truly experiencing synesthesia

involved asking those who had been hypnotized to see

the numeral "7" as red if they could see the number when

it was printed in black against a red background. If the

participants were unable to see the digit, the researchers

concluded that the hypnotically-induced synesthesia was

real.

The research shows that "cross-talk" within the brain can

be the cause of synesthetic experiences, not extra brain

connections. Coauthor Cohen Kadosh said "this takes us

one step closer to understanding the causes of

synesthesia and abnormal cross-brain interactions."

·           Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena 

·           Rare but Real: People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color 

·           New Insight into People Who Taste Words 

Inside Science News Service is supported by the

American Institute of Physics.

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