Synaesthesia is linked to differences in music preference and musical sophistication and a distinctive pattern of sound-color associations

Abstract

Synaesthesia has often been linked to an artistic or creative temperament, but the nature of this link (and, hence, the possible underpinning mechanisms) are poorly understood. This study focusses primarily on people with synaesthesia who have visual experiences, including color, that are induced by music. We determine how this impacts their musical preferences and musical sophistication using previously validated self-report measures and contrast them against non-synaesthetes and synaesthetes with non-musical types. Our data show that people with music-color synaesthesia gravitate toward certain genres (e.g., Reflective and Complex) and show more active engagement with music relative to controls and other synaesthetes. However, synaesthesia as a whole is also linked to greater musical sophistication (e.g., perceptual abilities). A second study examines in detail the nature of associations from musical notes to colors in synaesthetes relative to non-synaesthetes. Synaesthetes have a distinctive way of associating colors with notes: They are more consistent over time, show a more sensitive pitch-luminance correspondence, and have a distinctive color palette (e.g., more browns, fewer greens). These indicative features can be used to determine the presence of this form of synaesthesia.