Exploring the world of extra sensations in synesthete.
Synesthesia has fascinated researchers for a long time. Dr. Jamie Ward from the University of Sussex, UK, has investigated a large number of synesthetes - people, who perceive the world in a different way than the average person. Synesthesia is characterized by one or more additional perceptual features that are evoked by a stimulus - for example a particular color when viewing a particular digit, or the sensation of a particular taste when hearing a word. In many studies researchers have shown that these experiences are more than just randomly learned associations between different stimulus domains. Instead, they might point at the possibility that synesthetic brains might be wired in a different way than 'average' brains. Dr. Ward addresses many aspects of the research on synesthesia in this interview. It was conducted by goCognitive in 2010 at the University of Sussex near Brighton.
