Another possible attempt at topicality was the date – April 1st being April Fool’s Day of course. Instantly, my brain was on skeptic-alert. Am I about to be had? Will I fall uncritically for a story with as much basis in reality as the spaghetti harvest? I can be on occasion quite gullible, despite being a skeptic. I suppose my involvement with skepticism is probably due in some degree to a form of damage limitation. Like putting my seatbelt on. But I digress.

The article itself was about synaesthesia, specifically a form in which the synaesthete can perceive the ‘geography of time’, as the article puts it. Synaesthesia is a condition in which the senses are mixed, so that a sound or a number may be perceived alongside a colour, or certain emotions may be linked with a smell or a taste, and other variations of mixed senses.  Readers may have heard of a man called James Wannerton, who’s name often pops up in synaesthesia research. He is a synaesthete who experiences different smells and tastes for the people he knows. One person always provokes the taste of earwax, while another smells of wet nappies. Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant as well as a synaesthete, experiences specific emotions and colours for different numbers. (Incidentally, I recommend his book Born On a Blue Day, which is an interesting insight into the unique properties provided by his dual conditions.) Famous synaesthetes include Richard Feynman and David Hockney.

What makes this article potentially dubious is its focus on so-called time-space synaesthesia, which is not exactly a commonly recognised form. The article concerned a study of 183 students conducted by David Brang of the psychology department at the University of California. Brang describes the condition of space-time synaesthesia thus:

“In general, these individuals perceive months of the year in circular shapes, usually just as an image inside their mind’s eye … These calendars occur in almost any possible shape, and many of the synaesthetes actually experience the calendar projected out into the real world.”

One of the subjects in the study apparently saw the year as a circular ring surrounding her body. The ‘ring’ rotated clockwise throughout the year so that the current month was always inside her chest, with the previous month right in front of her chest.

In the study itself, each of the 183 students were asked to visualise the months of the year and construct this representation on a computer screen. Four months later they were shown a blank screen and asked to select a position for each of the months. They were prompted with a cue month – a randomly selected month placed as a dot in the location where the student had originally placed it. Four of the 183 students placed their months in a distinct spatial array – such as a circle – that was consistent over the trials. To Brang, this suggested they were time-space synaesthetes.

A second test compared the synaesthetes against non-synaesthetes in memorising an unfamiliar spatial calendar and reproducing it. The time-space synaesthetes had much better much recall than the time-blind majority.

I don’t pretend to be particularly knowledgeable on the best way to conduct a study. I actually have difficulty seeing how this study leads to the conclusions drawn, as it just seems to be testing the students’ powers of recall more than anything else. However, I don’t feel like I know enough about the area to make a judgement so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one and accept it.

What I’m not sure about is whether I can accept the validity of the article itself. I can’t shake off the possibility that it might be a well-crafted April Fool’s Day hoax. I initially accepted it quite uncritically, and considered using it for the latest Skeptics With a K, but on bringing the article up with my fellow hosts eyebrows were raised. Am I being gullible? The possibility of this form of synaesthesia existing seems quite feasible to me, but then I seem to be in a minority on this one.

The article links to the journal of Consciousness and Cognition,  a real journal which unfortunately demands money before you can read the study itself. Even more unfortunately, I like my money to stay in my bank account.

So, I ask you readers out there if any of you know anything about this subject and can enlighten me on whether this is a real condition. Is it all a hoax, or just real stuff dressed up in glitzy glad rags like a lot of New Scientist articles?

Is there such a thing as time-space synaesthesia?

If there is, it would be interesting to know whether something like this comes in useful in daily life. Even more interesting would be to know what kind of jobs these people have, and whether they utilise their unique perspective on the world. Maybe it’s something you could even semi-train non-synaesthetes to do, rather than simply being an exclusive skill. Who knows. Not me. I’m the thick one asking you all for help!