A form ofsynaesthesiain which people experience letters or numbers in colour may be trainable . The discovery could cast off new light on how such traits develop .
Synaesthesia is thought to have agenetic constituent , but some multitude have reported synaesthetic experience following hypnosis , soOlympia Colizoliat the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands , and colleagues , wondered if it might also be possible to adopt synaesthesia through breeding .
To test the theme , they gave seven volunteers a novel to take in which sure letters were always publish in reddened , light-green , blue or orange ( see picture ) . Before and after reading the book , the volunteer took a “ synaesthetic crowding ” trial , in which they identified the midway missive of a grid of black letters which were quickly flashed onto a screen . Synaesthetes perform better on the test when a letter they experience in coloring material is the objective letter .
The volunteers do importantly better on this mental test after preparation compared with people who show the novel in dim and white .
The findings suggest that innate synaesthesia may make grow as a event of puerility experience as well as genetic science , says Colizoli , who award the finding at theForum of European Neurosciencein Amsterdam last calendar week .
This clause in the beginning appeared onNew Scientist .
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