Take the test that reveals if you HEAR flashes of light

January 18, 2017

Study found 22% of people experience auditory sensations with silent stimuli
It may give these people an advantage when interpreting subtle visual signals
But, researchers say it could also interfere with their perception of real sounds

Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

Published:
15:54 EST, 17 January 2017

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Updated:
17:59 EST, 17 January 2017

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Some people have the ability to ‘hear what they see,’ assigning subliminal sounds to silent visual cues.

A new study has found that roughly one in five people experience auditory sensations when viewing silent stimuli, suggesting it’s far more common than previously thought.

The synaesthesia-like phenomenon may give these people an advantage when interpreting subtle visual signals, such as ‘Morse-code’ sequences of flashing light – but it could also interfere with their perception of real sounds.

TAKE THE TEST TO FIND OUT IF YOU HEAR WITH YOUR EYES

In a new study, researchers found that 22 percent of people can ‘hear what they see.’

The team has released an online survey with examples of visual motion that could evoke such a response.

To take the test, click here.

Researchers say the phenomenon may give these people an advantage when interpreting visual signals – but it could also interfere with their perception of real sounds.

Synaesthesia is a condition in which sensory experiences are somewhat entangled, causing some people, for example, to taste particular words or associate numbers with certain colors.

In the study, published to the journal Consciousness and Cognition, researchers from City University and King’s College in London found that a similar phenomenon dubbed ‘visually-evoked auditory response’ (V-EAR) allows people to link visual experiences with sound.

The team has released an online survey with examples of visual stimuli that could bring about an internal auditory sensation.

The 40 participants involved in the research were given pairs of either visual or auditory Morse-code like sequences, and asked to determine whether or not they were the same, the Guardian reports.

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About one in five (22%) reported hearing faint sounds when viewing silent flashes.

And, those who responded ‘yes’ when asked if they heard a sound along with the flashes were found to be better at distinguishing between the sequences.

A second experiment, however, revealed that V-EAR may act like background noise in some situations, as those who performed better on the Morse-code task were also more distracted by irrelevant light flashes during listening tasks, according to the Guardian.

‘This benefit might arise from an ability to recode visual signals as sounds, thus taking advantage of superior temporal acuity of audition,’ the authors wrote.

A second experiment, however, revealed that V-EAR may act like background noise in some situations. But as the auditory response is often subtle, many people may experience it in everyday life without even knowing it

‘In support of this, those who showed better visual relative to auditory sequence discrimination also had poorer auditory detection in the presence of uninformative visual flashes, though this was independent of awareness of visually-evoked sounds.

‘Thus a visually-evoked auditory representation may occur subliminally and disrupt detection of real auditory signals.’

While other forms of synaesthesia are relatively rare, affecting just 2-4 percent of the population, the researchers say V-EAR may be far more prevalent, and could itself be a ‘normally-occurring precursor to visual-to-auditory synaesthesia.’

As the auditory response is often subtle, many people may experience it in everyday life without even knowing it.

PEOPLE TRAINED TO ‘SEE’ LETTERS AS COLOURS SEE AN INCREASE IN IQ

Synaesthetes, including singers Pharrell Williams and Lady Gaga, report an overlap in their senses; they see smells, taste colours or feel sounds.

The neurological condition, which can affect as many as one in 23 people, has long been linked with creativity.

And now scientists believe the condition correlates to an increase in intelligence – and they claim people can even be taught to experience it.

The University of Sussex has devised a nine-week training programme to see if adults without synaesthesia can develop the key hallmarks of the condition.

They found, in a sample study of 14, that the participants were able to develop strong letter-colour associations to pass all the standard tests for synaesthesia.

Most experienced sensations such as letters seeming ‘coloured’ or having individual personas, for instance, ‘x is boring’, ‘w is calm’.

One of the most surprising outcomes of the study was that those who underwent the training also saw their IQ jump by an average of 12 points, compared to a control group that didn’t undergo training.