Synaesthetic Experience Research Articles

Rose Blossoms, Ashura Pudding, and a “Golden Trophy:” Embodied Material Traces of Islamic Mysticism in Ottoman Hungary

This study examines three of the most iconic sites associated with Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, in Ottoman Hungary. These are three mausoleums located in Buda, Pécs, and Turbék, near Zigetvár. The first two are the final resting places of the Sufi mystics known as Gül Baba and Idris Baba. The third is Sultan Süleyman’s mausoleum next to a Sufi dervish lodge, the foundations of which were uncovered during recent excavations. The research sheds light on the (embodied) material practices associated with these sites, as well as their sensory engagement and synaesthetic experiences. The bodies of the spiritual leaders, presented in the first two cases, serve as living sites of mystical experiences, both through self-destructive acts graphically represented on their bodies, and through bodily miracles such as hypercorporeality, multilocality, and dream visions. The third case concerns the body of a secular and a spiritual leader, the temporary burial of his disemboweled and embalmed body in the mausoleum at Turbék, and the tradition that his heart and entrails were kept in a reliquary-like vessel at the site, which interestingly paralleled contemporary Habsburg customs. Building on Thomas Csordas (1990) and Manuel Vásquez (2011), I explore the role of human and non-human “supernatural” actors interacting in these mystical networks, focusing on the role of their embodiment and materiality, their movement and their physically fragmented bodies.

Action, emotion, and music-colour synaesthesia: an examination of sensorimotor and emotional responses in synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes

Synaesthesia has been conceptualised as a joining of sensory experiences. Taking a holistic, embodied perspective, we investigate in this paper the role of action and emotion, testing hypotheses related to (1) changes to action-related qualities of a musical stimulus affect the resulting synaesthetic experience; (2) a comparable relationship exists between music, sensorimotor and emotional responses in synaesthetes and the general population; and (3) sensorimotor responses are more strongly associated with synaesthesia than emotion. 29 synaesthetes and 33 non-synaesthetes listened to 12 musical excerpts performed on a musical instrument they had first-hand experience playing, an instrument never played before, and a deadpan performance generated by notation software, i.e., a performance without expression. They evaluated the intensity of their experience of the music using a list of dimensions that relate to sensorimotor, emotional or synaesthetic sensations. Results demonstrated that the intensity of listeners’ responses was most strongly influenced by whether or not music is performed by a human, more so than familiarity with a particular instrument. Furthermore, our findings reveal a shared relationship between emotional and sensorimotor responses among both synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. Yet it was sensorimotor intensity that was shown to be fundamentally associated with the intensity of the synaesthetic response. Overall, the research argues for, and gives first evidence of a key role of action in shaping the experiences of music-colour synaesthesia.

Using immersive virtual reality to recreate the synaesthetic experience.

Synaesthesia is a condition where people experience unusual sensory or cognitive sensations in response to apparently unrelated stimuli. This paper presents two experiments which aimed to examine whether Virtual Reality (VR) technology can be used to recreate the synaesthetic experience. There is a lack of research in this area, with most studies focussing primarily on synaesthetic colors. Experiment 1 aimed to build on previous research by using not only a traditional color-picker but also VR to capture a more nuanced picture of synaesthetic perception. A multiple case study design was used to examine the experiences of six participants in detail. Data gathering took place via Zoom. During the initial data-gathering session, participants used a color-picker to provide grapheme-color associations. After this session, some of the participants' synaesthetic experiences were recreated using a VR-by-proxy approach. Results indicated that VR is capable of capturing elements of synaesthetic perception that other methods have been unable to, such as texture, small degrees of movement, and 3D structure. Experiment 2 expanded upon these findings by moving beyond the VR-by-proxy approach and asking three participants to recreate their own audiovisual synaesthetic associations in the VR environment. Inductive Thematic Analysis was used to analyze the results of this experiment. The potential of expanding this technique to other forms of perceptual diversity is discussed.

Extensive Phenomenological Overlap Between Training-Induced and Naturally-Occurring Synaesthetic Experiences

Synaesthesia is a condition defined by additional perceptual experiences, which are automatically and consistently triggered by specific inducing stimuli. The associative nature of synaesthesia has motivated attempts to induce synaesthesia by means of associative learning. Two recent studies of this kind highlighted the potential for perceptual plasticity even in adulthood, by demonstrating that extensive associative training can generate not only behavioural and neurophysiological markers of synaesthesia, but also synaesthesia-like phenomenology. However, while the results of these studies provided tantalising evidence that a learning component may be involved in the development of synesthetic phenomenology, they only provided superficial descriptions regarding the training-related changes in induced synaesthesia-like (Induced) experience. Therefore, it was not possible to assess how closely the phenomenology of Induced and naturally occurring grapheme-colour synaesthesia (Lifelong) overlap. Here, we addressed this question by providing a new qualitative analysis, using grounded theory, of the phenomenological changes associated with learning new perceptual phenomenology (Induced group) and comparing the descriptive similarities in colour experience to equivalent qualitative data acquired from a new group of Lifelong participants. Using this approach, we were able to directly compare associated colour experiences between the Induced and Lifelong group to assess how closely these two types of novel perceptual experience align. Our results reveal that induced and synaesthetic experience are remarkably similar, displaying a high degree of phenomenological overlap across multiple experiential categories, including: stability of experience, location of colour experience, shape of co-occurring colour experience, relative strength of colour experience and automaticity of colour experience. Our results exemplify the benefits of qualitative methods by providing new evidence that intensive training of letter-colour associations can alter conscious perceptual experiences in non-synaesthetes, and that such alterations produce synaesthesia-like phenomenology, which substantially resembles experiences described in natural grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Our results have implications for the plasticity of visual perception and the role of learning and development in establishing perceptual traits.

Coloured Openings in Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse

A close examination of the colour red in Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse shows that in it colour extends beyond the synaesthetic experience theorized by the ancient poets. In Carson’s book, colour is a complex living entity. Granted agency, red functions as a narrative agent able to author its autobiography.

Music-colour synaesthesia: Sensorimotor features and synaesthetic experience

Music-colour synaesthesia: Sensorimotor features and synaesthetic experience

Make this tango viral: Touching toward the untouchable in tele-synaesthesia performance

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an uncanny rift between tact and touch as it expands the virtual towards its potential. Layer upon layer of new information has been repeatedly revising and reformulating our sense of touch. The unconditional freedom of touch needs to be rendered accountable in this rift of time and space. The act of touching entails individual acknowledging the risk of reaching towards the unknown or the known. Tracing with a tactile sense of touch is to be tactful about how, where and what can such act of touching could reach, especially in the context of communicative technology. This article focuses on the possibility of virtual sensibility by challenging ways to feel touched beyond the nostalgic narratives that attempt to indict communicative technology with the loss of touch. To replenish and reinstate touch through tele-synaesthesia performance, I ask: how to elongate our somatosensensation and echo the embodied experience of touching through virtual connectivity? Tele-synaesthesia performance joints telematic and synaesthetic experience together to embody the incorporeality of touch through virtual connectivity. It embodies the injunction of physical contact and challenges what can and cannot be touched by suturing one sensuous modality to another. Inspired by Paul Sermon’s artistic production of Telematic Quarantine (2020) and Pandemic Encounters (2020), that tele-presents the stories of self (isolation), I have created The Best Facial (2021): a series of one-to-one participatory tele-synaesthesia performances, where I became a virtual aesthetician and performed ‘virtual facial care’ on Zoom amid the second wave of the pandemic in the United Kingdom. In this article, I will discuss how tele-synaesthesia performance could trigger tactile experiences in the participants in reference to Michel Foucault’s concept Heterotopia (1986) that allegorically address the incompatible physical places in the society. I discuss how to elicit an affective sensory response from non-tactile senses through virtual touch, as stated by Naomi Bennett’s ‘Telematic connections: sensing, feeling, being in space together’ (2020). I refer to Legacy Russell’s discussion on glitch (2020) to analyse the possible future of tele-synaesthesia performance and its potential for expanding virtual connectivity with an ethical touch of a non-performative refusal of the present.

Afterimages and the synaesthesia of photography

This article takes as its focus the concept of the ‘afterimage’ and its relationship to memory, the synaesthetic experience of perception and the multisensory turn within the study of photographic images. Afterimages have consistently been described as phenomena of visual persistence where, optically, a recorded moment of the past leaks into the present and remains visible before us on our retinas. By recasting this originary understanding of an afterimage as simply a ghostly, optical occurrence and insisting that the phenomenon exceeds the visual and is rather an intersensorial occurrence, I seek to present how encounters with images stay with us in powerful ways and across many senses at once. As an intervention within the field of image theory and photography studies that builds upon the relatively recent turn away from prioritizing visuality and instead shifting towards multisensoriality – what we might also term as the ‘more-than visual’ – this piece proposes that if images exceed the visual and carry with them physical, haptic, sonic and affective qualities, then perhaps the afterimage is not something that we merely see but also what we can feel and hear and move-with. Perhaps the afterimage carries an intensity and an afterlife which lingers in our minds and can take hold of our entire body and our senses, composing and recomposing them over time. By pairing such inquiries alongside the narrative, literary and poetic works of Dionne Brand and Nathaniel Mackey – both of whom write of the intersensorial quality of photographs and afterimages with a particular kind of lively openness – I am hoping to intervene into the ongoing ‘more-than visual’ turn within the field of image theory by infusing it with a narrative-oriented synaesthetic vocabulary.

Multisensoryczność "Listów do Very" Vladimira Nabokova

The main aim of the present paper is to investigate and describe the nature of synaesthetic devices employed by Vladimir Nabokov evident in his letters to his wife – Vera Slonim. The analysis of the language and style of the matrimonial intimate correspondence, written for one reader only, is expected to provide evidence allowing one to establish whether the numerous variants of perceptual synaesthesia employed by Nabokov in all his literary texts reflect his genuine synaesthetic experiences or whether such can only serve as examples of the writer’s passion for creating a kind of perceptual play on words and puzzles.

What is the relationship between Aphantasia, Synaesthesia and Autism?

For people with aphantasia, visual imagery is absent or markedly impaired. Here, we investigated the relationship between aphantasia and two other neurodevelopmental conditions also linked to imagery differences: synaesthesia, and autism. In Experiment 1a and 1b, we asked whether aphantasia and synaesthesia can co-occur, an important question given that synaesthesia is linked to strong imagery. Taking grapheme-colour synaesthesia as a test case, we found that synaesthesia can be objectively diagnosed in aphantasics, suggesting visual imagery is not necessary for synaesthesia to occur. However, aphantasia influenced the type of synaesthesia experienced (favouring ‘associator’ over ‘projector’ synaesthesia - a distinction tied to the phenomenology of the synaesthetic experience). In Experiment 2, we asked whether aphantasics have traits associated with autism, an important question given that autism – like aphantasia – is linked to weak imagery. We found that aphantasics reported more autistic traits than controls, with weaknesses in imagination and social skills.

Apparent physical brightness of graphemes is altered by their synaesthetic colour in grapheme-colour synaesthetes

Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a condition in which the visual perception of letters or numbers induces a specific colour sensation. In this study, we demonstrated that the apparent physical brightness of graphemes is modulated by the synaesthetic colours elicited by them. Synaesthetes first selected a synaesthetic colour corresponding to each capital letter and digit. Then, we selected a grapheme stimulus with a bright synaesthetic colour and one with a dark colour for each synaesthete. Finally, synaesthetes and non-synaesthete controls participated in a brightness judgment task, in which each participant judged the real brightness of each of the two stimuli compared to a standard stimulus. Compared to non-synaesthetes, synaesthetes judged a grapheme with a bright synaesthetic colour to be brighter than one with a dark synaesthetic colour, suggesting that the synaesthetic colour experience of synaesthetes alters their brightness perception. Such alteration in real brightness perception was observed both in those who experienced synaesthetic colours in external space (projector-type synaesthetes) and in those who experienced such colours ‘in the mind’s eye’ (associator-type synaesthetes). These results support the view that early visual processing is modulated by feedback transmitted from the V4 colour area, the neural activation of which accompanies synaesthetic colour experience.

Multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data for imaginary and real colours in grapheme-colour synaesthesia.

Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a subjective phenomenon related to perception and imagination, in which some people involuntarily but systematically associate specific, idiosyncratic colours to achromatic letters or digits. Its investigation is relevant to unravel the neural correlates of colour perception in isolation from low-level neural processing of spectral components, as well as the neural correlates of imagination by being able to reliably trigger imaginary colour experiences. However, functional MRI studies using univariate analyses failed to provide univocal evidence of the activation of the "colour network" by synaesthesia. Applying multivariate (multivoxel) pattern analysis (MVPA) on 20 synaesthetes and 20 control participants, we tested whether the neural processing of real colours (concentric rings) and synaesthetic colours (black graphemes) shared patterns of activations. Region of interest analyses in retinotopically and anatomically defined visual areas revealed neither evidence of shared circuits for real and synaesthetic colour processing, nor processing difference between synaesthetes and controls. We also found no correlation with individual experiences, characterised by measuring the strength of synaesthetic associations. The whole brain searchlight analysis led to similar results. We conclude that revealing the neural coding of the synaesthetic experience of colours is a hard task which requires the improvement of our current methodology: for example involving more individuals and achieving higher MR signal to noise ratio and spatial resolution. So far, we have not found any evidence of the involvement of the cortical colour network in the subjective experience of synaesthetic colours.

The Healing Green, Cultural Synaesthesia and Triangular Comparativism

ABSTRACT This article asks what kind of ‘fatigue' (lao) the Chinese “Five Twig Powder” with qing (green) twig ingredients treated. If one considers the pronunciation of the colour term qing a phono-aesthetic aspect of the treatment, the Chinese ‘sound of greenness' can be compared to the Anangu ‘smell of greenness' that medical practices effected after the first rains in Australia's deserts (Young, Diana 2005. The Smell of Greenness: Cultural Synaesthesia in the Western Desert. Etnofoor, 18(1):61–77), and to how in early modern England young women of good standing started to experience greene sycknesse (King, Helen 2004. The Disease of Virgins: Green Sickness, Chlorosis and the Problems of Puberty. London: Routledge). As a ‘triangular comparison’ of these historically and culturally unrelated settings demonstrates, the respective greens – qing, ukiri and greene – are all an intrinsic aspect of body techniques that trigger life-enhancing effects. The synaesthetic experience of colour explains their medical efficaciousness.

Exploring the relationship between grapheme colour-picking consistency and mental imagery.

Previous research has indicated a potential link between mental imagery and synaesthesia. However, these findings are mainly based on imagery self-report measures and recruitment of self-selected synaesthetes. To avoid issues of self-selection and demand effects, we recruited participants from the general population, rather than synaesthetes specifically, and used colour-picking consistency tests for letters and numbers to assess a 'synaesthete-like' experience. Mental imagery ability and mental rotation ability were assessed using both self-report measures and behavioural assessments. Consistency in colour-picking for letters (but not numbers) was predicted by performance on the visual mental imagery task but not by a mental rotation task or self-report measures. Using the consistency score as a proxy measure of grapheme-colour synaesthesia, we provide more evidence for the suggestion that synaesthetic experience is associated with enhanced mental imagery, even when participants are naive to the research topic. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia'.

Stochastic resonance model of synaesthesia.

In synaesthesia, stimulation of one sensory modality evokes additional experiences in another modality (e.g. sounds evoking colours). Along with these cross-sensory experiences, there are several cognitive and perceptual differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. For example, synaesthetes demonstrate enhanced imagery, increased cortical excitability and greater perceptual sensitivity in the concurrent modality. Previous models suggest that synaesthesia results from increased connectivity between corresponding sensory regions or disinhibited feedback from higher cortical areas. While these models explain how one sense can evoke qualitative experiences in another, they fail to predict the broader phenotype of differences observed in synaesthetes. Here, we propose a novel model of synaesthesia based on the principles of stochastic resonance. Specifically, we hypothesize that synaesthetes have greater neural noise in sensory regions, which allows pre-existing multisensory pathways to elicit supra-threshold activation (i.e. synaesthetic experiences). The strengths of this model are (a) it predicts the broader cognitive and perceptual differences in synaesthetes, (b) it provides a unified framework linking developmental and induced synaesthesias, and (c) it explains why synaesthetic associations are inconsistent at onset but stabilize over time. We review research consistent with this model and propose future studies to test its limits. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia'.

Do synaesthesia and mental imagery tap into similar cross-modal processes?

Synaesthesia has previously been linked with imagery abilities, although an understanding of a causal role for mental imagery in broader synaesthetic experiences remains elusive. This can be partly attributed to our relatively poor understanding of imagery in sensory domains beyond vision. Investigations into the neural and behavioural underpinnings of mental imagery have nevertheless identified an important role for imagery in perception, particularly in mediating cross-modal interactions. However, the phenomenology of synaesthesia gives rise to the assumption that associated cross-modal interactions may be encapsulated and specific to synaesthesia. As such, evidence for a link between imagery and perception may not generalize to synaesthesia. Here, we present results that challenge this idea: first, we found enhanced somatosensory imagery evoked by visual stimuli of body parts in mirror-touch synaesthetes, relative to other synaesthetes or controls. Moreover, this enhanced imagery generalized to tactile object properties not directly linked to their synaesthetic associations. Second, we report evidence that concurrent experience evoked in grapheme-colour synaesthesia was sufficient to trigger visual-to-tactile correspondences that are common to all. Together, these findings show that enhanced mental imagery is a consistent hallmark of synaesthesia, and suggest the intriguing possibility that imagery may facilitate the cross-modal interactions that underpin synaesthesic experiences. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia'.

Deepening understanding of language through synaesthesia: a call to reform and expand.

In this paper, I present arguments and suggestions for the improvement of the scientific study of synaesthesia, and particularly grapheme-colour synaesthesia in relation to psycholinguistic research, although the principles I advocate can be easily adapted to any subfield of synaesthesia study. I postulate that the current state of research on synaesthesia in general, and on grapheme-colour synaesthesia in particular, suffers from a lack of exploratory evidence and essential groundwork upon which to build hypothesis-testing studies. In particular, I argue that synaesthesia research has been artificially bounded by assumptions about the nature of synaesthetic experiences, which constrain both the questions that researchers ask and the way in which they go about answering those questions. As a specific example, I detail how much of the current research on grapheme-colour synaesthesia is built to accommodate two major assumptions about the nature of colours for letters and for words-assumptions which I will contend are not universally true, and the exceptions to which point to a much richer and heterogeneous understanding of synaesthetic experience than current research practices capture. The top-down predetermination of what is important or meaningful to measure, and what is not, has subsequently impeded a full understanding of what synaesthesia is and how it works. I argue that these assumptions must be carefully addressed and evaluated, both for the particular case of grapheme-colour synaesthesia and for the field as a whole, to move towards a holistic and fruitful understanding of synaesthesia as a phenomenon and as a tool to study language, thought and perception. To that end, I propose specific recommendations for synaesthesia researchers to solidify and expand their understanding and to capture the actual experience of synaesthetes. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia'.

User Needs for Haptic Communication of VR Fashion Product Shopping

Non-contact judgment and evaluation for products are increasingly needed along with a rapid environmental change in fashion that sows urgency in the need to implement services that allows users to judge and experience a tactile sense in a fashion product without actual contact. Technological development is required to provide users with syn-aesthetic experiences that integrate the visual, tactile and the auditory. There is also a need to conduct research to increase immersion that provides users with ICT-related experiences communicated through fashion images. The study analyzed demands for haptic communication technology by Korean users in immersive VR fashion product shopping. Accordingly, it defined haptic communication through literature research, investigated immersion in the VR environment and conducted in-depth interviews for haptic communication applicable to VR shopping. Findings show that hedonic reactions by fantasy, emotion and fun function are an important motive in selecting VR shopping. VR fashion product shopping steps were divided into 4: move to store, search in store, search of product and purchase based on offline store shopping experience. It defined the haptic communication by steps and analyzed the types of the haptic feedback to be implemented. The study results provide basic data for developing haptic communication technology that can enhance e a sense of the presence and immersion experiences that can help lay a groundwork for pilot studies on the convergence of the virtual and the real.

Lyrical Slippage, Meaning-Making, and Proximity in Song 2:10-13

Abstract Where does lyric significance happen? With recent interdisciplinary studies from the fields of aesthetics and neuroscience offering support to Emmanuel Levinas’s idea of proximity, I propose that proximity is the maternal body of lyrical meaning. In this paper, I will illustrate the case by unpacking the mental processing of the lyrical imageries in Song 2:10–13, and highlight two aspects of proximity along the way. First, the perception of lyrical imagery is more complex than a representational correspondence between the word and the world. It covers the stages from the verbal cues to multisensory imageries, to evoked synaesthetic experiences, to accompanied feelings and provoked actions. Cognitively it is best described as one’s approximation toward the core semantic sense of the verbal cues, which is diversified by the reader’s embodied minds. Second, at the root of the aesthetic experience is one’s sense of self, which is susceptible to the intrigue of alterity. One’s reception of lyrical imageries in Song 2:10–13 can be characterized as an over-abundant synaesthetic experience. It directs one’s attention to an anterior receptivity embedded in subjectivity by way of the excess of the sensing over the semantic, and the sensed over the sensing. This reduction to the baseline level of function, or the sheer sensation of oneself, beckons the lyrical subject to become aware of one’s a prior proximity to alterity. In brief, while the readers’ individualized approximations preclude a verifiable universal reception, they do not warrant the kind of hermeneutic violence that overrides the text with the readers’ contexts. Rather, by being awakened to one’s susceptibility to the otherness of the poem, the lyrical subject realizes that proximity is the ethical precondition in making sense of the poem and oneself.

Words Clothed in Light: Dhikr (Recollection), Colour and Synaesthesia in Early Kubrawi Sufism

ABSTRACT Islamic societies and cultures have been, and at times still are, regarded as phono-centric and placed in opposition to supposedly ocular-centric Western traditions. While these binary characterisations have been challenged, much remains to be understood regarding Islamic traditions and their own notions of a hierarchy of the senses. It is worth exploring Kubrawi Sufi thought in this regard since it betrays a movement towards ocular-centrism in twelfth and thirteenth century Sufism. By analysing the work of early Kubrawi authors, this article investigates Sufi concepts of sound, speech and vision in discussions of dhikr, or recollection. For the early Kubrawiyya, recollection facilitates and induces the perception of coloured lights. While much attention has been given to the significance of visions in Kubrawi Sufism, the interconnection between auditory recollection and visionary experiences has not been the subject of a dedicated study. Nor, to my knowledge, has there been a study dedicated to the phenomenon of synaesthesia in medieval Islamic thought. In this article I argue that early Kubrawi Sufis utilised theological notions of speech, and philosophical notions of colour, to arrive at a mystical theory that accounted for the phenomenon of auditory-visual synaesthesia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In doing so Kubrawi thinkers developed a theory which facilitated an ocular-centric framework for mystical experiences. This study will also highlight the importance of synaesthetic experiences for the identity of the Kubrawi Sufi community.