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A Better Look at Synesthesia

February 06, 2009

A new study in the American Journal of Human Genetics has performed the first whole-genome linkage scan for synesthesia, which is known to run in families and to affect women more than it does men. Researchers found four candidate regions on chromosomes 2q24, 5q33, 6p12, and 12p12, and revealed that the disease, in which sounds are perceived as colors, is not X-linked as was previously thought. "The genetics of this form of synesthesia -- and probably that of other forms -- is far more complex than previously thought," says Mo at Neurophilosophy. Also of note, he points out the region with the strongest linkage is located on chromosome 2, known to contain a gene associated with autism. "Like synesthesia, autism involves sensory and perceptual abnormalities, and autistics often report synesthesia-like symptoms," he adds.


Synesthesia is a "disease"?

Submitted by nighthawk808 on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 23:10.

Synesthesia is a "disease"? Since when? Frankly, I would let someone "cure" me of my synesthesia about as quickly as I'd let them "cure" me of my ability to taste sweetness or smell a rose blossom. I feel sorry for people who AREN'T synesthetic, because they don't know what they're missing.

That's really sloppy wording.

Submitted by farhat.habib on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 07:17.

That's really sloppy wording. At worst you could call it a disorder since diseases have to have an etiology. Synesthesia has no negative effects I know of and could even make an individual more "fit" by enhancing creativity and ability to make lateral connections between ideas.

Variant Perception Of course,

Submitted by noga on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 15:40.

Variant Perception
Of course, synesthesia is not a disease - I thought and hoped, that through progress in the neurosciences we had moved beyond that 19th century type of pseudo-science thinking meanwhile. I would not even call it a disorder, but rather a perception variant. I fully agree with both farhat and nighthawk: it certainly has the potential of endogenous enhancement of creativeness, an issue not raised yet in the current debate on safety and acceptability of - pharmacologically - induced cognitive enhancement. I am a participant in synesthesia research and I do use these 'extended abilities' purposefully since I learned through the experiments that they are 'real'. Not to be cured.