Apparent physical brightness of graphemes is altered by their synaesthetic colour in grapheme-colour synaesthetes.

ABSTRACT: Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a condition in which the visual perception of letters or numbers induces a specific colour sensation. In this study, we demonstrated that the apparent physical brightness of graphemes is modulated by the synaesthetic colours elicited by them. Synaesthetes first selected a synaesthetic colour corresponding to each capital letter and digit. Then, we selected a grapheme stimulus with a bright synaesthetic colour and one with a dark colour for each synaesthete. Finally, synaesthetes and non-synaesthete controls participated in a brightness judgment task, in which each participant judged the real brightness of each of the two stimuli compared to a standard stimulus. Compared to non-synaesthetes, synaesthetes judged a grapheme with a bright synaesthetic colour to

SUBMITTER: Uno K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7674506 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature