Color and texture associations in voice-induced synesthesia

Voice-induced synesthesia, a form of synesthesia in which synesthetic perceptions are induced by the sounds of people's voices, appears to be relatively rare and has not been systematically studied. In this study we investigated the synesthetic color and visual texture perceptions experienced in response to different types of “voice quality” (e.g., nasal, whisper, falsetto). Experiences of three different groups—self-reported voice synesthetes, phoneticians, and controls—were compared using both qualitative and quantitative analysis in a study conducted online. Whilst, in the qualitative analysis, synesthetes used more color and texture terms to describe voices than either phoneticians or controls, only weak differences, and many similarities, between groups were found in the quantitative analysis. Notable consistent results between groups were the matching of higher speech fundamental frequencies with lighter and redder colors, the matching of “whispery” voices with smoke-like textures, and the matching of “harsh” and “creaky” voices with textures resembling dry cracked soil. These data are discussed in the light of current thinking about definitions and categorizations of synesthesia, especially in cases where individuals apparently have a range of different synesthetic inducers

Intelligent Based Terrain Preview Controller for a 3-axle Vehicle

Presented at 13th International Symposium on Advanced Vehicle Control, AVEC'16; Munich 13-16/09/2016The paper presents a six-wheel half longitudinal model and the design of a dual level control architecture. The first (top) level is designed using a Sugeno fuzzy inference feedforward architecture with and without preview. The second level of controllers are locally managing each wheel for each axle. As the vehicle is moving forward the front wheels and suspension units will have less time to respond when compared to the middle and rear units, hence a preview sensor is used to compensate. The paper shows that the local active suspensions together with the Sugeno Fuzzy, (locally optimised using subtractive clustering), Feedforward control strategy is more effective and this architecture has resulted in reducing the sprung mass vertical acceleration and pitch accelerations

Objectum sexuality: a sexual orientation linked with autism and synaesthesia

Objectum-sexuality (OS) is a sexual orientation which has received little attention in the academic literature. Individuals who identify as OS experience emotional, romantic and/or sexual feelings towards inanimate objects (e.g. a bridge, a statue). We tested 34 OS individuals and 88 controls, and provide the first empirical evidence that OS is linked to two separate neurodevelopmental traits - autism and synaesthesia. We show that OS individuals possess significantly higher rates of diagnosed autism and significantly stronger autistic traits compared to controls, as well as a significantly higher prevalence of synaesthesia, and significant synaesthetic traits inherent in the nature of their attractions. Our results suggest that OS may encapsulate autism and synaesthesia within its phenomenology. Our data speak to debates concerning the biological underpinnings of sexuality, to models of autism and synaesthesia, and to psychological and philosophical models of romantic love

Sound symbolism in synesthesia: evidence from a lexical-gustatory synesthete

Synesthesia is a condition in which perceptual or cognitive stimuli (e.g., a written letter) trigger atypical additional percepts (e.g., the color yellow). Although these cross-modal pairings appear idiosyncratic in that they superficially differ from synesthete to synesthete, underlying patterns do exist and these can, in some circumstances, reflect the cross-modal intuitions of nonsynesthetes (e.g., higher pitch sounds tend to be "seen" in lighter colors by synesthetes and are also paired to lighter colors by nonsynesthetes in cross-modal matching tasks). We recently showed that grapheme-color synesthetes are more sensitive to sound symbolism (i.e., cross-modal sound-meaning correspondences) in natural language compared to nonsynesthetes. Accordingly, we hypothesize that sound symbolism may be a guiding force in synesthesia to dictate what types of synesthetic experiences are triggered by words. We tested this hypothesis by examining the cross-modal mappings of lexical-gustatory synesthete, JIW, for whom words trigger flavor experiences. We show that certain phonological features (e.g., front vowels) systematically trigger particular categories of taste (e.g., bitter) in his synesthesia. Some of these associations agree with sound symbolic patterns in natural language. This supports the view that synesthesia may be an exaggeration of cross-modal associations found in the general population and that sound symbolic properties of language may arise from similar mechanisms as those found in synesthesia

High-pitch sounds small for domestic dogs: abstract crossmodal correspondences between auditory pitch and visual size

Humans possess intuitive associations linking certain non-redundant features of stimuli - e.g. high-pitched sounds with small object size (or similarly, low-pitched sounds with large object size). This phenomenon, known as crossmodal correspondence, has been identified in humans across multiple different senses. There is some evidence that non-human animals also form crossmodal correspondences, but the known examples are mostly limited to the associations between the pitch of vocalizations and the size of callers. To investigate whether domestic dogs, like humans, show abstract pitch-size association, we first trained dogs to approach and touch an object after hearing a sound emanating from it. Subsequently, we repeated the task but presented dogs with two objects differing in size, only one of which was playing a sound. The sound was either high or low pitched, thereby creating trials that were either congruent (high pitch from small object; low pitch from large objects) or incongruent (the reverse). We found that dogs reacted faster on congruent versus incongruent trials. Moreover, their accuracy was at chance on incongruent trials, but significantly above chance for congruent trials. Our results suggest that non-human animals show abstract pitch sound correspondences, indicating these correspondences may not be uniquely human but rather a sensory processing feature shared by other species

Different dimensions of cognitive style in typical and atypical cognition: new evidence and a new measurement tool

We developed the Sussex Cognitive Styles Questionnaire (SCSQ) to investigate visual and verbal processing preferences and incorporate global/local processing orientations and systemising into a single, comprehensive measure. In Study 1 (N = 1542), factor analysis revealed six reliable subscales to the final 60 item questionnaire: Imagery Ability (relating to the use of visual mental imagery in everyday life); Technical/Spatial (relating to spatial mental imagery, and numerical and technical cognition); Language & Word Forms; Need for Organisation; Global Bias; and Systemising Tendency. Thus, we replicate previous findings that visual and verbal styles are separable, and that types of imagery can be subdivided. We extend previous research by showing that spatial imagery clusters with other abstract cognitive skills, and demonstrate that global/local bias can be separated from systemising. Study 2 validated the Technical/Spatial and Language & Word Forms factors by showing that they affect performance on memory tasks. In Study 3, we validated Imagery Ability, Technical/Spatial, Language & Word Forms, Global Bias, and Systemising Tendency by issuing the SCSQ to a sample of synaesthetes (N = 121) who report atypical cognitive profiles on these subscales. Thus, the SCSQ consolidates research from traditionally disparate areas of cognitive science into a comprehensive cognitive style measure, which can be used in the general population, and special populations

Pseudo-Synesthesia through Reading Books with Colored Letters

Background Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter ‘a’ always appears as light blue). In this study, we examine whether traits typically regarded as markers of synesthesia can be acquired by simply reading in color. Methodology/Principal Findings Non-synesthetes were given specially prepared colored books to read. A modified Stroop task was administered before and after reading. A perceptual crowding task was administered after reading. Reading one book (>49,000 words) was sufficient to induce effects regarded as behavioral markers for synesthesia. The results of the Stroop tasks indicate that it is possible to learn letter-color associations through reading in color (F(1, 14) = 5.85, p = .030). Furthermore, Stroop effects correlated with subjective reports about experiencing letters in color (r(13) = 0.51, p = .05). The frequency of viewing letters is related to the level of association as seen by the difference in the Stroop effect size between upper- and lower-case letters (t(14) = 2.79, p = .014) and in a subgroup of participants whose Stroop effects increased as they continued to read in color. Readers did not show significant performance advantages on the crowding task compared to controls. Acknowledging the many differences between trainees and synesthetes, results suggest that it may be possible to acquire a subset of synesthetic behavioral traits in adulthood through training. Conclusion/Significance To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of acquiring letter-color associations through reading in color. Reading in color appears to be a promising avenue in which we may explore the differences and similarities between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Additionally, reading in color is a plausible method for a long-term ‘synesthetic’ training program

The sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic test of sequence-space synesthesia

People with sequence-space synaesthesia (SSS) report stable visuo-spatial forms corresponding to numbers, days and months (amongst others). This type of synaesthesia has intrigued scientists for over 130 years but the lack of an agreed upon tool for assessing it has held back research on this phenomenon. The present study builds on previous tests by measuring the consistency of spatial locations that is known to discriminate controls from synaesthetes. We document, for the first time, the sensitivity and specificity of such a test and suggest a diagnostic cut-off point for discriminating between the groups based on the area bounded by different placement attempts with the same item

The emergence of synaesthesia in a Neuronal Network Model via changes in perceptual sensitivity and plasticity

Synaesthesia is an unusual perceptual experience in which an inducer stimulus triggers a percept in a different domain in addition to its own. To explore the conditions under which synaesthesia evolves, we studied a neuronal network model that represents two recurrently connected neural systems. The interactions in the network evolve according to learning rules that optimize sensory sensitivity. We demonstrate several scenarios, such as sensory deprivation or heightened plasticity, under which synaesthesia can evolve even though the inputs to the two systems are statistically independent and the initial cross-talk interactions are zero. Sensory deprivation is the known causal mechanism for acquired synaesthesia and increased plasticity is implicated in developmental synaesthesia. The model unifies different causes of synaesthesia within a single theoretical framework and repositions synaesthesia not as some quirk of aberrant connectivity, but rather as a functional brain state that can emerge as a consequence of optimising sensory information processing