Synesthetic colors induced by graphemes that have not been consciously perceived

Grapheme-color synesthetes experience colors when they see printed letters of the alphabet. Currently, we tested four "projector" synesthetes, whose colors evoked by graphemes have sensory support or quale and appear to be restricted spatially to the letters like real colors. We use three...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neurocase 2015-03, Vol.21 (2), p.216-219
Main Authors: Ramachandran, V.S., Seckel, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Color Perception
Humans
mental rotation
Pattern Recognition, Visual
perception
Perceptual Disorders - psychology
pop out
puzzles
Reading
Subliminal Stimulation
synesthesia
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Summary:Grapheme-color synesthetes experience colors when they see printed letters of the alphabet. Currently, we tested four "projector" synesthetes, whose colors evoked by graphemes have sensory support or quale and appear to be restricted spatially to the letters like real colors. We use three different kinds of puzzle pictures that contained hidden letters, which require 30 s or more for nonsynesthetes to identify. Grapheme-color projector synesthetes recognize them three times faster and report that the colors were evoked before conscious letter recognition, clueing them as to what the letters were. Subjectively, the synesthetic subjects reported that they also saw mirror-reversed letters in the same colors as nonreversed letters which enabled them to read mirror-reversed text at thrice the normal speed. We conclude that in some synesthetes colors are evoked preconsciously early in sensory processing.
ISSN:1355-4794
1465-3656
DOI:10.1080/13554794.2014.890728