SCAD 2015

This year, SCAD had a number of interesting presentations. One particular presentation focused on the perceptions of strangers by people with color-aura synesthesia (meaning that they "see" a type of aura when looking at other people). The researcher used two synesthetes and compared the reported auras to see if there were any similarities, which would indicate that there could possibly be a similarity in brain structure or processing between cases. The results showed that there was a fair amount of similarity between the synesthetes when they were given 12 colors from a wheel to choose as descriptors. The responses themselves ranged from basic to very intricate, and I began thinking about if creativity may have an influence on the responses. For example, would a more creative synesthete report more intricate auras? The intricate responses made me think of artwork, as they detailed textures and shapes, rather than just colors (pink spikes, jagged edges). When I am taking Research in Perception next semester, I would like to look into this topic, even though it would be difficult to find enough synesthetes to conduct research on the topic.