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Published online 5 August 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1014
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The sounds of silent movies
Flickering images can trigger perception of sound.
People with synaesthesia can’t help but get two sensory perceptions for the price of one. Some perceive colours when they hear words or musical notes, or read numbers; rarer individuals can even get tastes from shapes.
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This is fascinating. I have never heard of synaesthesia, but my whole life I've connected numbers and music to colors. Single digits correlate to numbers for me -- blue to 4, yellow to 2, red to 3, white to 1... I figured it was probably due to some flashcards or something from my pre-school years. What I can't explain is the tie between music and color. I play the piano, and for example, the key of A is red. The key of G is orange. C is blue. D is yellow. And, those colors have changed over time. I'd love to learn more about this.
Some observers have reported hearing sounds in concert with the motion of the northern lights. These sounds can not be directly from the location of the aurora. Something akin to hearing-motion synaestesia has long been suspected, although some scientists have been trying to discover physical causes such as brush discharge or natural transduction by objects near the observer of radio waves into sound waves. I wonder if people who report hearing the aurora can be tested for hearing-motion synaesthesia. As a non-synaesthete, I used to think my wife was a little daft when she would say a number or certain sound evoked a color in her mind.