Study: Synesthesia Can Be Learned

[Luis Anaya]

Scientists Think Synaesthesia Is Something You Can Learn

A recent experiment by conducted by the University of Sussex suggests it may be possible to learn to experience synesthesia, a rare condition that mixes up brain signals and leads people to hear colors or taste words. Researcher David Bor had volunteers read ebooks with 13 letters consistently written in a specific color. In addition, the volunteers spent 30 minutes every day associating the letters and colors, working on increasingly difficult tasks.

Adults Can Be Trained to Acquire Synesthetic Experiences

Synesthesia is a condition where presentation of one perceptual class consistently evokes additional experiences in different perceptual categories. Synesthesia is widely considered a congenital condition, although an alternative view is that it is underpinned by repeated exposure to combined perceptual features at key developmental stages. Here we explore the potential for repeated associative learning to shape and engender synesthetic experiences. Non-synesthetic adult participants engaged in an extensive training regime that involved adaptive memory and reading tasks, designed to reinforce 13 specific letter-color associations. Following training, subjects exhibited a range of standard behavioral and physiological markers for grapheme-color synesthesia; crucially, most also described perceiving color experiences for achromatic letters, inside and outside the lab, where such experiences are usually considered the hallmark of genuine synesthetes. Collectively our results are consistent with developmental accounts of synesthesia and illuminate a previously unsuspected potential for new learning to shape perceptual experience, even in adulthood.

Another article:
People taught synaesthesia learn to read in colour

See also:

• Synesthesia Training Program
• Can Synesthesia Be Learned?
• Synesthesia and Evolution
• Synesthesia and Misophonia Articles and Video

[Leonardo]

Is there any app using WM training to learn Synesthesia like in the study? 

[Luis Anaya]

Not unless I know, it is known that synaesthetes have a better memory because they see everything in color and can add emotions to even the most trivial. However, I have not seen any variation of dual n back that allows you to train WM at the same time as synaesthesia, if you want to train synaesthesia at the moment I think you will have to do it separately.

If you want to train synaesthesia, you can try this application that Robert, our friend from the forum, created 

 https://competicionmental.appspot.com/router?page=infinity&en=1

The only thing is that this website does not allow you to choose the color of each letter of the alphabet. 

If you want to read articles or books with the colors that you want in google docs, tell me and I will pass you a script that I found on the internet. and you will have something like this.

or if you want you can use this extension that lets you choose the colors you want to see them on any website you go.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/synesthetize/ldljgghnflfphlnpneghciodeehilana

[robert chalean]

I have some Apps:

Trainer: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/entrenamiento#

Stroop: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/router?page=stroop

Reader: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/index.php?libro=hp3resumenEn.html (To define your colours click on CustomA, see text like a code: click on bloqs)

Advanced Reader: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/router?page=cca2

Advanced Reader 2: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/router?page=cca  (change Violet to Christian or Cromofons) 

Advanced Reader 3: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/router?page=q (The color are almost equal, you define the variation) 

Sing Synesthesia: http://leerencolores.appspot.com/router?page=solfetexto

Thanks!

[Luis Anaya]

Robert I love the colors you used in the 3 link, , and the colors of the numbers ... were the same, coincidence? We won't know, anyway, thanks a lot for all your work robert, you keep this community alive with your great apps ;-)

[robert chalean]

Hello the colors are from this tow works:

1)

https://www.christianfaur.com/conceptual/colorAlphabet/image3.html

2)

You can see other options:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Synesthesia/

Thanks!

[Luis Anaya]

ok, thanks for the links, I will keep on "training" the synaesthesia, lets see if it works