Background
It's more common than you might think. People with the innate gift of synaesthesia often hear with more than just their ears. Senses other than those expected participate in perception. In contrast to the saying "the eye eats with you", in the case of gustatory synaesthesia, for example, the taste alone can also produce the vision of colors with connected eyes. And unlike the expectation of yellow when tasting a lemon, in synaesthesia colors are predominantly mixed into the experience in a completely non-metaphorical way. The coding usually remains reliably consistent.
Anyone who wants to say something and already sees the color of a word before it occurs to them has a very interesting form of consciousness. This ability inspires us to think about how the brain constantly manages to incorporate all of its convolutions into an overall experience (Hearing Centre, Visual Center, Feelings, etc.). Intuition, gut feeling and spontaneity could be expected to develop as quickly as the connections between the senses in synaesthetic perception.
At least 5% of people are gifted with synaesthesia, a form of evolution. Connections, "binding", are central functions of the brain for generating consciousness. Where certain areas are more strongly connected, there is an exciting field of research into how consciousness works. How does the brain make it possible for me to do something with what I experience? Reinforced functions can be measured. For example, the increased coupling of hearing and seeing, where a sound triggers a color. Synaesthesia as enhanced coupling is therefore an exciting paradigm in consciousness research.
Overarching goals
The work of the working group is characterized by three main areas: firstly, the use of research findings to better explain the functions of consciousness. The second is to better explain synaesthesia itself and to learn from it. In view of the fact that synaesthesia is less frequently associated with mental illness, it is also a question of what can be learned from it for the healing system.
While it is undoubtedly not an illness but a variant with many advantages, synaesthesia is nevertheless associated with challenges in everyday life, particularly in schools, education, partnerships and special medical features such as the tolerance of psychotropic substances, research into which represents a third key focus of synaesthesia research in Hanover.
The analysis of neurotrophins, among other things, is intended to help differentiate the hypotheses about the development of synaesthesia. Is synaesthesia an archaic phenomenon in the sense of residual panaesthesia as in the early childhood brain, or is synaesthesia associated with diseases that are accompanied by a reduced rate of synapse formation? Or is synaesthesia in the sense of a hyperconnected brain a pre-developed variant of consciousness with a particularly pronounced neuroplasticity?
Publications:
- Gaschler-Markefski B, Szycik GR, Sinke C, Neufeld J, Schneider U, Baumgart F, Dierks O, Stiegemann U, Scheich H, Emrich HM, Zedler M. Anomalous Auditory Cortex Activations in Colored Hearing Synaesthetes: An fMRI-Study. Seeing Perceiving. 2011;24(4):391-405. DOI
- Simner J, Rehme MK, Carmichael DA, Bastin ME, Sprooten E, McIntosh AM, Lawrie SM, Zedler M. Social responsiveness to inanimate entities: Altered white matter in a 'social synaesthesia'. Neuropsychologia. 2016;216:282-289. DOI
- Neufeld J, Sinke C, Dillo W, Emrich HM, Szycik GR, Dima D, Bleich S, Zedler M. The neural correlates of colored music: a functional MRI investigation of auditory-visual synaesthesia. Neuropsychologia. 2012 Jan;50(1):85-9. DOI
Mixing sensory impressions makes some things easier to learn. People with synaesthesia benefit a priori from the possibilities of polyvalent absorption of memory content, but come up against limits in the pedagogical normative system. On the one hand, the advantages of synaesthesia for normal pedagogical methods and for rehabilitative measures for neurocognitive disorders and dissociative disorders are exploratively investigated, and on the other hand, routines in the school system are adapted, taking into account the specific characteristics of dealing with synaesthetes.
Publications:
- Zedler M. The A is red: Of mixed senses. A brief overview of synaesthesia. Neuropaed. 2014;13, 136-140. PDF
- Zedler M, Rehme MK, Synesthesia: A psychosocial approach. In: Simner J, Hubbard , editors. The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia. Oxford University Press; 2013. chapter 46. available from: DOI
- Emrich HM, Schneider U, Zedler M. What color is Monday? Synesthesia: life with connected senses. 2nd edition. Stuttgart: Hirzel; 2017. 142 p. Available here.
While synaesthesia can be understood as a healthy norm variant of qualitative human consciousness, the phenomenon also represents a special resilience to psychiatric illnesses, almost like a protective function. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to become psychiatrically ill despite synaesthesia. The special features of the genesis of psychiatric illnesses and the tolerability and effectiveness of pharmacopsychiatric treatment methods are evaluated as part of a special consultation.
Publications:
- Nielsen J, Krüger THC, Hartmann U, Passie T, Fehr T, Zedler M. Synaesthesia and Sexuality: The influence of synaesthetic perceptions on sexual experience. Front Psychol. 2013;4:751. DOI
- Neufeld J, Roy M, Zapf A, Sinke C, Emrich HM, Prox-Vagedes V, Dillo W, Zedler M. Is synesthesia more common in patients with asperger syndrome? Hum Neurosci. 2013;7:847. DOI
Scientific cooperations
- Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Granada, España
- Departamento de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Granada, España
- School of Psychology University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Group members
Head of research group
Dr. med. Markus Zedler
Senior Physician
Phone: +49 511 532 3165
Title of the doctoral thesis: Investigation of the connection between neuroplasticity and synaesthesia - UNSYN study
Nadine.Eckardt@stud.mh-hannover.de