Synesthetic associations and psychosensory symptoms of temporal epilepsy

Synesthesia manifests as unusual associative connections that may cause intriguing experiences due to various cross-modal connections, for example, a sound may be experienced as color. Several findings indicate that temporal lobe seizures or seizure-like conditions and increased excitability may influence various unusual cross-sensory links and synesthetic experiences.

In this context, the purpose of this study is to find relationships between word-color associations and psychopathological symptoms related to temporal lobe epilepsy and limbic irritability (Limbic System Checklist [LSCL-33]), symptoms of traumatic stress (Trauma Symptoms Checklist [TSC-40]), and depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI-II]) in 71 participants (mean age =25.23 years) recruited from the general population. The whole sample included two subgroups according to levels of psychosensory and affective symptoms related to temporal epilepsy measured by LSCL-33.

The results in both subgroups indicate specific words correlated with the scores of psychopathological symptoms measured by LSCL-33, BDI-II, and TSC-40. Significant Spearman correlations have been predominantly found in the subgroup of participants with higher levels of LSCL-33.

The results indicate a specific synesthetic-like mechanism in association processes that reflects psychopathological symptoms related to increased temporo-limbic excitability.