Image of Professor Mohan Matthen

A Shift in Perception

Cynthia Macdonald

When Constantine Caravassilis listens to stringed instruments, strange things happen. If he hears a chord played in the low range, his eyes might suddenly flood with colour: “a G,” he tells me, “is usually orange.” At other times, this type of sound can cause him to experience sweet or bitter tastes.

Caravassilis, an accomplished composer and doctoral student at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, has an unusually strong case of synesthesia – a condition in which the stimulation of one sensory pathway leads automatically to the arousal of another.

Read the entire story, and learn about the U of T Mississauga-based Network for Sensory Research, in the Autumn 2012 issue of the U of T Magazine.