Daniel Biskup
INTD 105
10/17/16
Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which senses are blended. Varients include associating sounds or images with colors, smells or tastes. For example, a majority of those with synesthesia associate written language with images, each letter and word having its own color. Synesthetes view and learn in different ways than most from this sensory overlap.
A recent study has suggested that like in many written languages, signed language can also trigger sensory overlap in synesthetes. 50 volunteers with synesthesia in this study known to associate letters and colors, viewed letters signed to them by video. Those in the study that knew sign language did indeed associate colors with signed letters, while those that did not know showed no association.
The results of this have shown how development of this condition occurs in individuals. Essentially the results show that synesthesia can adapt based on the information that people have learned. Some of the volunteers learned signed language later in life, showing that it can be developed at any point in a person’s life. This study can lead to evidence of how human cognition operates in the brain and how we learn by association.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2095783-first-evidence-that-synaesthesia-gives-colour-to-sign-language/