Synesthesia affects verification of simple arithmetic equations. - GreenMedInfo Summary

To investigate the effects of color-digit synesthesia on numerical representation, we presented a synesthete, called SE, in the present study, and controls with mathematical equations for verification. In Experiment 1, SE verified addition equations made up of digits that either matched or mismatched her color-digit photisms or were in black. In Experiment 2A, the addends were presented in the different color conditions and the solution was presented in black, whereas in Experiment 2B the addends were presented in black and the solutions were presented in the different color conditions. In Experiment 3, multiplication and division equations were presented in the same color conditions as in Experiment 1. SE responded significantly faster to equations that matched her photisms than to those that did not; controls did not show this effect. These results suggest that photisms influence the processing of digits in arithmetic verification, replicating and extending previous findings.