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Related Experiment Videos

Visual synaesthesia in the blind.

Megan S Steven1, Colin Blakemore

  • 1University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, UK. megan.steven@alum.dartmouth.org

Perception
|October 6, 2004
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Late-blind individuals with synaesthesia experience reliable, ectopic color perceptions from sound or touch. These synaesthetic experiences persist long-term, independent of visual input, suggesting robust neural pathways.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Synaesthesia involves experiencing sensations in an additional modality, often colored visual perceptions triggered by sounds or touch.
  • Studying synaesthesia in individuals with late-onset blindness offers insights into the persistence and neural basis of these cross-modal experiences.

Observation:

  • Six late-blind individuals, some without vision for over a decade, reported consistent synaesthetic color perceptions.
  • Percepts included colors evoked by hearing or thinking of letters, numbers, and time-related words.
  • One participant experienced colors for all words, and another saw colored Braille dots upon touch.

Findings:

  • Synaesthetic color perceptions were compelling and reliable over time.
  • Percepts were often colored patches, localized in body- or head-centered space.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Color perception depended on phonetic cues in one case and semantic context in others.

    • Implications:

    • Synaesthesia can persist long after the loss of natural sensory input, indicating stable neural substrates.
    • The findings suggest that the neural activity for synaesthesia occurs post-visual representation, independent of eye position.
    • Aberrant corticocortical connectivity, established early, may underlie synaesthesia, persisting without continuous associative learning.