A subtitled world: Uncovering the secrets of tickertape synesthesia

The acquisition of reading and writing are complex mechanisms whose subtleties we do not yet understand. Fabien Hauw and Laurent Cohen (Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne University, AP-HP), neurologists at Paris Brain Institute, hope to uncover how we connect between sounds, words, letters, and their meanings. To do this, they study people who present an astonishing characteristic: they transcribe the speech of others into text, automatically and involuntarily. Catchy tunes on the radio, sensational statements on the news, confidences of a friend, meowing of a cat... These sounds will appear to them as imaginary subtitles floating before their eyes. After studying 26 people concerned by this particular type of synesthesia, researchers opened the door to a new world of language, as described in a recent study published in Cortex.

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A subtitled world: Uncovering the secrets of tickertape synesthesia
The acquisition of reading and writing are complex mechanisms whose subtleties we do not yet understand. Fabien Hauw and Laurent Cohen (Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne University, AP-HP), neurologists at Paris Brain Institute, hope to uncover how we connect between sounds, words, letters, and their meanings. To do this, they study people who present an astonishing characteristic: they transcribe the speech of others into text, automatically and involuntarily. Catchy tunes on the radio, sensational statements on the news, confidences of a friend, meowing of a cat... These sounds will appear to them as imaginary subtitles floating before their eyes. After studying 26 people concerned by this particular type of synesthesia, researchers opened the door to a new world of language, as described in a recent study published in Cortex.