New study finds brain areas involved in perceiving speech as ‘subtitled’ bear striking similarity — yet contrasting activity levels — to those

Ticker-tape synaesthesia reveals links to dyslexia

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2025-01-09 08:30:04

New study finds brain areas involved in perceiving speech as ‘subtitled’ bear striking similarity — yet contrasting activity levels — to those involved in difficulty reading and writing.

Synaesthesia comes in a wide array of forms; so many, in fact, it's impossible to list them all. Some people perceive colours when they hear music, for example, whereas others perceive every word as having its own unique taste. There are even those with what's known as 'ticker-tape synaesthesia' (TTS) who, when they hear speech, perceive it as subtitled in their minds.

Recent research on 17 people with this particular form of unusual sensory processing has now revealed insights into why it happens. The results suggest that, in some ways, TTS is the opposite of dyslexia, a disorder involving difficulty in reading and writing that affects an estimated one in ten people in the UK.

In an earlier paper, Fabien Hauw at the Sorbonne University and colleagues reported a study of a 69-year-old French engineer with ticker-tape synaesthesia. 'MK' told the team that for as long as he could remember, whenever he has heard someone else or himself speaking, he's simultaneously perceived the words in written form, in black letters, "in his head". MK said he was unable to stop this from happening, and explained that if people nearby were talking, he found it quite tricky to read. This form of synaesthesia, as the team describe it, is effectively the opposite of reading: instead of visual letters being translated into speech inside our heads, with TTS, the opposite happens.