SYNAESTHESIA, a condition in which people make weird sensory associations, may rely more on the plasticity of the brain than on any genetic predisposition. This might mean that all of us are capable of having a synaesthetic experience.
People with synaesthesia often say that letters, words and numbers have innate colours. Even when tested years later, their associations remain consistent. But no one really knows why or how these odd associations form.
In 1996, Simon Baron-Cohen and his team at the University of Cambridge estimated that about 1 in every 2000 people had the condition and that it was likely…
