Developing synaesthesia: A primer (Editorial)

Synaesthesia is a variation of human experience that involves the automatic activation of unusual concurrent experiences in response to ordinary inducing stimuli. The causes for the development of synaesthesia are not well understood yet. Synaesthesia may have a genetic basis resulting in enhanced cortical connectivity during development. However, in some cases synaesthesia has a sudden onset, for example, caused by posthypnotic suggestions, drug exposure, or brain injury. Moreover, associative learning during a critical developmental period also seems to play an important role. Synaesthesia may even be acquired by training in adulthood. In this research topic, we bring together topical hypotheses, theories and empirical studies about the development of synaesthesia.