Items from 31 people Solomon Shangguan follows

Now Jamie Ward at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, and colleagues offer a different explanation. They had 36 colour-grapheme synaesthetes sit a similar test. When given just 1 second to identify the hidden shape, the synaesthetes were more likely to spot it than controls. But they still only found it about 40 per cent of the time. Volunteers' descriptions of the trial offer insights into why this is. "I only see the colours in the part that I am looking at," said one. "I have to attend to the symbols," said another (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1765).