Irish psychologists have found that synesthesia - side sensations when perceiving certain images or sounds - persists for a long time and is strongly associated with brain activity. They came to this conclusion while observing the condition of one of the patients. A preprint of the scientists' article is published in the bioRxiv.org repository.
Psychologists investigated a rare case of synesthesia in a young woman. She can see translucent colored spots during the sounding of notes and chords and, she says, perceives halos or auras around people's faces with her “inner vision”. Their color depends on the personality of the person, and can also change depending on emotions. Scientists know only eight cases of this form of synesthesia.
Psychologists were able to track changes in a woman's ability when she was taking medications for migraines, as well as viral meningitis. In one case, the drugs led to the temporary disappearance of synesthesia, and in the other, to a change in the color perception of notes. The latter, according to the patient, was the appearance of "wrong" colors. In 2014, a woman was struck by lightning, which resulted in a complete distortion of color sensations and the appearance of white flashes.
In addition, after a traumatic brain injury, the patient experienced panic attacks, which were preceded by sensations of strange and "non-existent" colors. During treatment, she took a drug intended to treat neuroses. As a result, synesthesia was muted, but after a while the previous sensations reappeared.
According to experts, studies of such cases will help to uncover the neurological mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of synesthesia.