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Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
Published on: February 20, 2014
Synesthesia, pseudo-synesthesia, and irritable bowel syndrome
Helen R Carruthers1, Vivien Miller, Nicholas Tarrier
1Department of Translational Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Helen.carruthers@uhsm.nhs.uk
Digestive Diseases and Sciences
|February 1, 2012
Summary
People with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are more likely to report synesthesia, a condition where senses are linked. This suggests a potential connection between IBS and synesthesia requiring further investigation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Gastroenterology
- Sensory Perception
Background:
- Synesthesia involves cross-modal sensory experiences.
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is associated with disordered sensory information processing.
- The potential link between synesthesia and IBS is unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate a possible association between synesthesia and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Main Methods:
- Screened 200 IBS outpatients and 200 healthy controls for synesthesia.
- Assessed grapheme-color and music-color/shape synesthesia using questionnaires.
- Tested reproducibility of synesthetic experiences after 3 months.
Main Results:
- 13% of IBS patients reported synesthesia versus 3% of controls (P < 0.001).
- Higher consistency of synesthetic experiences in IBS patients (7.5% >75% consistency) compared to controls (2.5%).
- Pseudo-synesthesia identified in 3.5% of IBS patients, none in controls.
Conclusions:
- IBS patients exhibit a significantly higher prevalence of reported synesthetic experiences compared to controls.
- The findings support further research into the neural mechanisms linking IBS and synesthesia.
- Investigating this link may offer new insights into the pathophysiology of both conditions.
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