School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Conscious Cogn. 2018 May;61:79-93. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.03.012. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
People with sequence-space synaesthesia visualize sequential concepts such as numbers and time as an ordered pattern extending through space. Unlike other types of synaesthesia, there is no generally agreed objective method for diagnosing this variant or separating it from potentially related aspects of cognition. We use a recently-developed spatial consistency test together with a novel questionnaire on naïve samples and estimate the prevalence of sequence-space synaesthesia to be around 8.1% (Study 1) to 12.8% (Study 2). We validate our test by showing that participants classified as having sequence-space synaesthesia perform differently on lab-based tasks. They show a spatial Stroop-like interference response, they show enhanced detection of low visibility Gabor stimuli, they report more use of visual imagery, and improved memory for certain types of public events. We suggest that sequence-space synaesthesia develops from a particular neurocognitive profile linked both to greater visual imagery and enhanced visual perception.
具有序列-空间联觉的人将数字和时间等顺序概念视为通过空间延伸的有序模式。与其他类型的联觉不同，目前还没有普遍认可的客观方法来诊断这种变体，也无法将其与认知的潜在相关方面区分开来。我们使用了一种新开发的空间一致性测试以及一个关于朴素样本的新问卷，并估计序列-空间联觉的患病率约为 8.1%（研究 1）至 12.8%（研究 2）。我们通过证明被分类为具有序列-空间联觉的参与者在基于实验室的任务中表现不同来验证我们的测试。他们表现出类似于空间 Stroop 的干扰反应，他们对低可见度的 Gabor 刺激的检测能力增强，他们报告更多地使用视觉意象，并且对某些类型的公共事件的记忆更好。我们认为，序列-空间联觉是由一种特定的神经认知模式发展而来的，这种模式与更强的视觉意象和增强的视觉感知有关。
