The Life Scientific: Julia Simner
Imagine if you were listening to an opera or a Taylor Swift concert, and as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, the music was accompanied by a rainbow of colours only you could see. Perhaps while listening to your friends talking, you simultaneously experience a smorgasbord of tastes, with different words evoking different flavours, maybe a delicious ice cream, or something as disgusting as ear wax...
This merging of the senses is known as synaesthesia, and it’s the rich research world of neuropsychologist Professor Julia Simner. Julia runs the Multisense lab at the University of Sussex and has pioneered research into understanding how special brains process our sensory world in special ways. In the studio she tests Jim to see if he might be a synaesthete or have aphantasia, which is the inability to view images in the mind’s eye. The results are surprising.
Julia’s discovered links to autism, and to different personality types, as well as a number of previously unknown sensory differences.
She describes her career and her life as a series of swerves, or sliding door moments, that have led her to study the subject and the people she’s passionate about. She says that the more she looks for these unusual traits in us the more she finds.
---
Homepage
Accessibility links
- Accessibility Help
BBC World Service
Discovery
- Discovery Home
- Episodes
- Galleries
- Podcast
- Join us on Facebook
Main content
Listen now
The Life Scientific: Julia Simner
Discovery
Synaesthesia is a merging of the senses, where words have tastes and letters have colours. Professor Julia Simner tests Jim in the studio with surprising results.
Imagine if you were listening to an opera or a Taylor Swift concert, and as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, the music was accompanied by a rainbow of colours only you could see. Perhaps while listening to your friends talking, you simultaneously experience a smorgasbord of tastes, with different words evoking different flavours, maybe a delicious ice cream, or something as disgusting as ear wax...
This merging of the senses is known as synaesthesia, and it’s the rich research world of neuropsychologist Professor Julia Simner. Julia runs the Multisense lab at the University of Sussex and has pioneered research into understanding how special brains process our sensory world in special ways. In the studio she tests Jim to see if he might be a synaesthete or have aphantasia, which is the inability to view images in the mind’s eye. The results are surprising.
Julia’s discovered links to autism, and to different personality types, as well as a number of previously unknown sensory differences.
She describes her career and her life as a series of swerves, or sliding door moments, that have led her to study the subject and the people she’s passionate about. She says that the more she looks for these unusual traits in us the more she finds.
###
####
Higher quality (128kbps)
Lower quality (64kbps)
Available now
26 minutes
On radio
Tomorrow
01:32GMT
BBC World Service & Live News
More episodes
#### Previous
The Life Scientific: Caroline Smith
#### Next
The Life Scientific: Pierre Friedlingstein
See all episodes from Discovery
Broadcasts
Last Monday
20:32GMT
BBC World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
Last Monday
21:32GMT
BBC World Service except Online, Americas and the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview
Tuesday
05:32GMT
BBC World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean, South Asia & East Asia only
Space
[Image: Space]
The eclipses, spacecraft and astronauts changing our view of the Universe
The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry
[Image: The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry]
A pair of scientific sleuths answer your perplexing questions. Ask them anything!
Podcast
#### Discovery
Explorations in the world of science.
#### Similar programmes
By genre:
- Factual > Science & Nature
By format:
Magazines & Reviews
[Image: BBC World Service homepage]
Online schedule
Help & FAQs
Contact us
News in more than 40 languages
---
[Original source](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6sxc)