Inducing synesthesia in non-synesthetes: Short-term visual deprivation facilitates auditory-evoked visual percepts |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;2. Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK;3. Department of Psychology & Counselling, University of Greenwich, London, UK;4. Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology, Division of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK;5. The Beckley Foundation, Beckley Park, Oxford, UK;6. Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Sussex, UK;1. Department of Neurology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA;2. Department of Neural & Behavioral Sciences, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA;3. Department of Psychology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA;4. Department of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA;5. Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA;1. Department of Psychology, Durham University, United Kingdom;2. Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand;3. Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Politechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy;1. Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK;2. Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK;3. Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK;4. Institute of Psychology, University of Bern and Distance Learning University, Switzerland;5. Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK;1. Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK;2. Faculty of Psychology, Swiss Distance University Institute, Brig, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | Sounds can modulate activity in visual cortex, facilitating the detection of visual targets. However, these sound-driven modulations are not thought to evoke conscious visual percepts in the general population. In individuals with synesthesia, however, multisensory interactions do lead to qualitatively different experiences such as sounds evoking flashes of light. Why, if multisensory interactions are present in all individuals, do only synesthetes experience abnormal qualia? Competing models differ in the time required for synesthetic experiences to emerge. The cross-activation model suggests synesthesia arises over months or years from the development of abnormal neural connections. Here we demonstrate that after ∼5 min of visual deprivation, sounds can evoke synesthesia-like percepts (vivid colors and Klüver form-constants) in ∼50% of non-synesthetes. These results challenge aspects of the cross-activation model and suggest that synesthesia exists as a latent feature in all individuals, manifesting when the balance of activity across the senses has been altered. |
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| Keywords: | Multisensory Synesthesia Auditory-visual Hallucinations Phosphenes Imagery |
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