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Synesthesia

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Synesthesia is a remarkable condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People with synesthesia experience a blending or crossing of their senses, such as sight and sound, leading to cross-modal sensations. In this condition, the stimulation of one sense, such as hearing a number or musical note, triggers an experience of another sense, like sensing a specific color, taste, or smell. People...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 28, 2026

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

Synesthesia and the McCollough Effect.

V S Ramachandran¹, Zeve Marcus¹

¹Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

|June 14, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Synesthetes, individuals with grapheme-color synesthesia, exhibit an intensified McCollough effect. This suggests heightened cross-activation between brain regions responsible for color and form perception in synesthetes.

Keywords:

color imagery memory multisensory/cross-modal processing neural mechanisms perception synesthesia

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Sensory Perception

Background:

Synesthesia involves experiencing colors when viewing letters or numbers.
This phenomenon is hypothesized to stem from cross-activation between distinct brain modules.
The McCollough effect links visual form (oriented lines) to color perception.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether synesthetes experience an enhanced McCollough effect.
To explore the relationship between synesthesia and cross-modal sensory experiences.

Main Methods:

Participants included individuals with grapheme-color synesthesia and control subjects.
The McCollough effect was measured in both groups.
Standardized visual stimuli were used to elicit the effect.

Main Results:

Synesthetes demonstrated a significantly stronger McCollough effect compared to controls.
This finding supports the hypothesis of enhanced cross-activation in synesthetes.

Conclusions:

Synesthesia is associated with an augmented McCollough effect.
Enhanced cross-modal interactions in the brain may underlie both synesthesia and the McCollough effect.