For Kandinsky music and color were tightly tied together. This art would stimulate not just the viewer’s eyes but also ears. While writing that music is the ultimate teacher, Kandinsky believed that he could possibly evoke a sound through the sight and create a painting that would equivalent to a symphonic music. He is often credited for creating the first truly abstract paintings.
Take a look or a listen, perhaps it'll stir up some smells.Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866–1944) was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. There are even immersive VR aimed at providing such experiences. The British dance troupe BitterSuite uses food, perfume and touch to help its audience feel the music in an entirely new way.
When tested, one in five people claimed they heard faint sounds associated with flashing lights, even though no sound was present.īut if you're not one of this select population, you still can get a taste-literally-of what synesthesia is like. While it’s currently estimated about four percent of the global population has some sort of synesthesia, a study last year suggested that up to 20 percent of the population could have a low-level type of synesthesia. It’s possible that you might be a synesthete and not even realize it. For instance, Price reports that many people on the autism spectrum have sensitivities to sound, touch and other stimuli that may also be related to abnormal brain connections. While it’s interesting to know how the process works, it could also be useful in understanding other conditions as well. The team hopes to find more synesthetes so they can expand their genetic research. “ suggests we are moving in the right direction with these studies,” Fisher tells Price. Combined with the new study, that hints at the beginnings of an outline for how the trait works. Price reports that previous studies of synesthetes showed they have more than the normal number of neuronal connections in their brains. While the study does not point to a genetic "smoking gun" for synesthesia, it hints at the physical processes that causes the sensory mixing. The genes are expressed in the auditory and visual parts of the brain during early childhood development-the time when synesthesia commonly starts to take shape. They found that six of the genes identified were related to the process that helps neurons in the brain link up with the correct partners. As Fisher puts it: “Our hope was that the DNA data might point to shared biological processes as candidates for involvement in synesthesia.” So instead of searching for the specific genes responsible, the researchers examined the function of each of the genes of interest. Pinpointing particular genes is further complicated by a small sample size, Tereza Pultarova at LiveScience reports. “We knew from earlier studies by the Cambridge team that no single gene can account for this intriguing trait even families who experience the same form of synesthesia are likely to differ in terms of specific genetic explanations,” team leader Simon Fisher, director of the Max Planck Institute, says in the release. Those clusters of genes, however, were not the same in the three families studied, which suggests that the development of the trait is complex and not carried by a single gene or even a single set of genes. According to the study, the researchers found 37 "genes of interest" that could be related to the development of synesthesia. They then compared the DNA to members of the same family without the condition, looking for differences. They used the process to catalog the protein-producing genes from three generations of three families with a history of sound and color synesthesia. So the latest study used a new technique known as whole-exome sequencing to only target genes that encode proteins. We suspect some of the answers lie in people's genetic makeup."Īs Price reports, despite the suspected genetic link, researchers have not been able to use genomic analysis to identify the genes that might be responsible for the condition. “What we don't know yet is how these differences develop. “Brain imaging of adults with synesthesia suggests that their circuits are wired a little differently compared to people who don’t make these extra sensory associations,” geneticist Amanda Tilot, co-author of the new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says. Now, reports Michael Price at Science, researchers have identified some of the genes that may be responsible for these unusual experiences.Īccording to a press release, synesthesia commonly runs in families and usually develops in early childhood, which means it's likely there is a genetic basis for the ability.
This mash-up of senses is known as synesthesia and has baffled scientists for decades. It’s difficult to imagine for many people, but for a certain percentage of the human population, music may evoke colors, words stir up flavors or sounds may even curl into shapes.
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