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Updated: Apr 25, 2026

Applying Incongruent Visual-Tactile Stimuli during Object Transfer with Vibro-Tactile Feedback
Published on: May 23, 2019
Synesthetes show normal sound-induced flash fission and fusion illusions
Karen M Whittingham1, J Scott McDonald2, Colin W G Clifford1
1School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Abstract:
Idiopathic synesthesia, a neurological condition in which a stimulus in one sense generates a concurrent experience in a different sense, is often considered an example of multisensory integration. Consequently it has been suggested that synesthetes should experience multisensory illusions more consistently and compellingly than typical participants. To test this we measured the sound induced flash fission and fusion illusions in 22 coloured hearing synesthetes and 31 control participants. Analysis of the data using signal detection analysis, however, indicated no difference between the groups, either in perception or response bias, but a secondary analysis of the data did show evidence of a decline in the illusions for synesthetes with increasing age.
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