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Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience

Synesthesia

The Synesthesia Project is an ongoing collaboration which began in the fall of 2012 between researchers from a number of Nordic Universities investigating synesthesia. In the spring of 2017 the project extended collaborations to East Asia.

Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience

Synesthesia

The Synesthesia Project is an ongoing collaboration which began in the fall of 2012 between researchers from a number of Nordic Universities investigating synesthesia. In the spring of 2017 the project extended collaborations to East Asia.

Synesthesia Research at CCN

Synesthesia is derived from the ancient Greek words syn (joint/together) and aisthesis (sensation). It referees to a phenomenon were a sensation has an extra embedded sense quality (e.g. that weekdays have a certain colour). Synesthesia is a very broad phenomenon involving many different types of sensations ranging from a sense of colour for the different days of the week to spatial sensations affiliated with different numbers. For people without synesthesia this may be difficult to imagine, and it can be surprising to hear how people with synesthesia experience the world (see for example the interviews in Crossed Lines).

It is not uncommon that people with synesthesia discover that their synesthetic experience fairly late in their development. This is probably due to the fact that we rarely focus on how the world is experienced; it is assumed that other people naturally experience the world in the similar fashion as we experience it ourselves. Only when someone at say, the dinner table insists that Wednesday is blue – which of course is yellow – we discover that other people may experience the world differently from ourselves.

The aim of the current project is to broadly investigate synesthesia and how it affects other cognitive processes like memory, cognitive control, and attention.

Synesthesia Ressources

Synaesthesia Frequently Asked Questions

Funding - The Synaesthesia Project is supported by:

  • Kristian Holt-Hansen Foundation
  • Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research
  • The Danish Council for Independent Research (Humanities) DFF-Research Project 2

Contact

To contact the Synesthesia Project please write to syn@hum.aau.dk

Group members

Collaborators

Na Chen, Soochow University, China.

Raymond C. K. Chan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

Berit Brogaard, University of Miami, USA

Previous members

Michael Nygaard Pedersen, Århus University, Denmark.

Simon Henmar, Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, China.

Sofie Skårup Kristensen, Aalborg University

Rhonwyn Bisgaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Hazel Anderson, Aalborg University, Denmark.

COLLABORATORS

Na Chen, Soochow University, China.

Raymond C. K. Chan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

Berit Brogaard, University of Miami, USA

PREVIOUS MEMBERS
Michael Nygaard Pedersen, Århus University, Denmark.

Simon Henmar, Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, China.

Sofie Skårup Kristensen, Aalborg University

Rhonwyn Bisgaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Hazel Anderson, Aalborg University, Denmark.

Institutions

affiliated with the project
AALBORG UNIVERSITY
Department of Communication and Psychology
Att. Thomas Alrik Sørensen
Kroghstræde 3
Office 5.123
9220 Aalborg Ø
DENMARK
AARHUS UNIVERSITY
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit
Danish Neuroscience Center
Att. Thomas Alrik Sørensen
Nørrebrogade 44, Building 1A
8000 Aarhus C
DENMARK
RIGSHOSPITALET – GLOSTRUP, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
Department of Neurology
Att. Maria Nordfang
Nordre Ringvej 57
2600 Glostrup
DENMARK
UNIVERSITY OF AKUREYRI
Department of Psychology
Att. Árni Gunnar Ásgeirsson
Solborg v. Norduslod
Office A216
600 Akureyri
ICELAND