Is there a relationship between synaesthesia and artistic talent?
Some research has suggested that there might be a higher proportion of artists and poets who are synaesthetes (Dailey et al., 1997; Domino, 1989). However, non-synaesthete artists may sometimes mistake their artistic sensibilities for synaesthesia, giving rise to inaccurate estimates of synaesthesia within the artistic population. Recent studies in London however, have factored this out (Mulvenna et al., 2006) and still suggest possibly higher levels of creativity within synaesthetes. David Hockney and Vladimir Nabokov are/were synaesthetes, and many other famous artists have been put forward as potential synaesthetes (see Harrison, 2001).
