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All Outputs (21)

Is there a role for neuroscience in career counselling? (2024)
Digital Artefact
Robertson, P., Garden, C., & Carmichael, D. (2024). Is there a role for neuroscience in career counselling?. [Blog post]

This blog post provides a critical perspective on neuroscience informed career counselling.

Music in Colour (2023)
Book Chapter
Carmichael, D. (2023). Music in Colour. In R. Sholl (Ed.), Messiaen in Context (240-247). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108768290

This chapter provides a neuropsychological account of Messiaen’s well-known sound-to-colour synaesthesia. It offers an overview of the perceptual, cognitive, and neurological mechanisms underlying the condition, with reference to Messiaen’s own exper... Read More about Music in Colour.

What Factors Influence Children's Creative Artistic Orientation? The Novel Children's Creative Orientation Test: Artistic (2022)
Journal Article
Simner, J., Smees, R., Rinaldi, L. J., Carmichael, D. A., & McDonald, T. J. (2022). What Factors Influence Children's Creative Artistic Orientation? The Novel Children's Creative Orientation Test: Artistic. Journal of Creative Behavior, 56(4), 609-628. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.555

Creative orientation is the extent to which different individuals are drawn toward creative activities (e.g., art, music). We know relatively little about child-level creative orientation given certain testing limitations. Adult tools often measure t... Read More about What Factors Influence Children's Creative Artistic Orientation? The Novel Children's Creative Orientation Test: Artistic.

Wellbeing differences in children with synaesthesia: anxiety and mood regulation (2020)
Journal Article
Simner, J., Smees, R., Rinaldi, L. J., & Carmichael, D. A. (2021). Wellbeing differences in children with synaesthesia: anxiety and mood regulation. Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite, 13(1), 195-215. https://doi.org/10.2741/878

Synaesthesia is a neurodevelopmental trait that causes unusual sensory experiences (e.g., perceiving colours when reading letters and numbers). Our paper represents the first evidence that synaesthesia can impact negatively on children’s well-being,... Read More about Wellbeing differences in children with synaesthesia: anxiety and mood regulation.

Personality profile of child synaesthetes (2020)
Journal Article
Rinaldi, L., Smees, R., Carmichael, D., & Simner, J. (2020). Personality profile of child synaesthetes. Frontiers in Bioscience, 12, 162-182

Previous research into personality and synaesthesia has focused on adult populations and yielded mixed results. One particular challenge has been to distinguish traits associated with synaesthesia, from traits associated with the ways in which synaes... Read More about Personality profile of child synaesthetes.

Numeracy skills in child synaesthetes: Evidence from grapheme-colour synaesthesia (2020)
Journal Article
Rinaldi, L. J., Smees, R., Carmichael, D. A., & Simner, J. (2020). Numeracy skills in child synaesthetes: Evidence from grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Cortex, 126, 141-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.01.007

Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a neurological trait that causes lifelong colour associations for letter and numbers. Synaesthesia studies have demonstrated differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes in ways that extend beyond synaesthesia... Read More about Numeracy skills in child synaesthetes: Evidence from grapheme-colour synaesthesia.

Investigating genetic links between grapheme–colour synaesthesia and neuropsychiatric traits (2019)
Journal Article
Tilot, A. K., Vino, A., Kucera, K. S., Carmichael, D. A., van den Heuvel, L., den Hoed, J., Sidoroff-Dorso, A. V., Campbell, A., Porteous, D. J., St Pourcain, B., van Leeuwen, T. M., Ward, J., Rouw, R., Simner, J., & Fisher, S. E. (2019). Investigating genetic links between grapheme–colour synaesthesia and neuropsychiatric traits. Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences, 374(1787), Article 20190026. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0026

Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon affecting perception, where triggering stimuli (e.g. letters and numbers) elicit unusual secondary sensory experiences (e.g. colours). Family-based studies point to a role for genetic factors in the developme... Read More about Investigating genetic links between grapheme–colour synaesthesia and neuropsychiatric traits.

Learning in colour: children with grapheme-colour synaesthesia show cognitive benefits in vocabulary and self-evaluated reading (2019)
Journal Article
Smees, R., Hughes, J., Carmichael, D. A., & Simner, J. (2019). Learning in colour: children with grapheme-colour synaesthesia show cognitive benefits in vocabulary and self-evaluated reading. Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences, 374(1787), Article 20180348. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0348

Cognitive benefits associated with grapheme-colour synaesthesia in adults are well documented, but far less is known about whether such benefits might arise in synaesthetes as children. One previous study on a very small group of randomly sampled chi... Read More about Learning in colour: children with grapheme-colour synaesthesia show cognitive benefits in vocabulary and self-evaluated reading.

The biggest extension of rights in Europe? Needs, rights and children with additional support needs in Scotland (2019)
Journal Article
Riddell, S., & Carmichael, D. (2019). The biggest extension of rights in Europe? Needs, rights and children with additional support needs in Scotland. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(5), 473-490. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1580925

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 boosted the rights of parents of children with additional support needs (ASN) by improving access to information, instituting a Code of Practice and establishing new redress mechanis... Read More about The biggest extension of rights in Europe? Needs, rights and children with additional support needs in Scotland.

Is there a burden attached to synaesthesia? Health screening of synaesthetes in the general population (2018)
Journal Article
Carmichael, D. A., Smees, R., Shillcock, R. C., & Simner, J. (2019). Is there a burden attached to synaesthesia? Health screening of synaesthetes in the general population. British Journal of Psychology, 110(3), 530-548. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12354

Synaesthesia has long been considered a benign alternative form of perception most often associated with positive rather than negative outcomes. The condition has been associated with a variety of cognitive and perceptual advantages, including benefi... Read More about Is there a burden attached to synaesthesia? Health screening of synaesthetes in the general population.

Social responsiveness to inanimate entities: Altered white matter in a ‘social synaesthesia’ (2016)
Journal Article
Simner, J., Rehme, M., Carmichael, D., Bastin, M., Sprooten, E., McIntosh, A., Lawrie, S., & Zedler, M. (2016). Social responsiveness to inanimate entities: Altered white matter in a ‘social synaesthesia’. Neuropsychologia, 91, 282-289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.08.020

Judgments about personalities and social traits can be made by relatively brief exposure to animate living things. Here we show that unusual architecture in the microstructure of the human brain is related to atypical mental projections of personalit... Read More about Social responsiveness to inanimate entities: Altered white matter in a ‘social synaesthesia’.

Different dimensions of cognitive style in typical and atypical cognition: new evidence and a new measurement tool (2016)
Journal Article
Mealor, A. D., Simner, J., Rothen, N., Carmichael, D. A., & Ward, J. (2016). Different dimensions of cognitive style in typical and atypical cognition: new evidence and a new measurement tool. PLOS ONE, 11(5), Article e0155483. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155483

We developed the Sussex Cognitive Styles Questionnaire (SCSQ) to investigate visual and verbal processing preferences and incorporate global/local processing orientations and systemising into a single, comprehensive measure. In Study 1 (N = 1542), fa... Read More about Different dimensions of cognitive style in typical and atypical cognition: new evidence and a new measurement tool.

Cross-modal tactile–taste interactions in food evaluations (2015)
Journal Article
Slocombe, B., Carmichael, D., & Simner, J. (2016). Cross-modal tactile–taste interactions in food evaluations. Neuropsychologia, 88, 58-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.07.011

Detecting the taste components within a flavoured substance relies on exposing chemoreceptors within the mouth to the chemical components of ingested food. In our paper, we show that the evaluation of taste components can also be influenced by the ta... Read More about Cross-modal tactile–taste interactions in food evaluations.

Do sequence-space synaesthetes have better spatial imagery skills? Yes, but there are individual differences (2015)
Journal Article
Havlik, A. M., Carmichael, D. A., & Simner, J. (2015). Do sequence-space synaesthetes have better spatial imagery skills? Yes, but there are individual differences. Cognitive Processing, 16(3), 245-253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-015-0657-1

People with sequence-space synaesthesia perceive sequences (e.g. numbers, months, letters) as spatially extended forms. Here, we ask whether sequence-space synaesthetes have advantages in visuo-spatial skills such as mental rotation. Previous studies... Read More about Do sequence-space synaesthetes have better spatial imagery skills? Yes, but there are individual differences.

Is synaesthesia a dominantly female trait? (2015)
Journal Article
Simner, J., & Carmichael, D. A. (2015). Is synaesthesia a dominantly female trait?. Cognitive Neuroscience, 6(2-3), 68-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2015.1019441

Synaesthesia is a familial condition that gives rise to unusual secondary percepts. We present a large-scale prevalence study which informs our ideas on whether the condition is more prevalent in men or women. A number of studies over the last 20 yea... Read More about Is synaesthesia a dominantly female trait?.

Validating a standardised test battery for synesthesia: Does the Synesthesia Battery reliably detect synesthesia? (2015)
Journal Article
Carmichael, D., Down, M., Shillcock, R., Eagleman, D., & Simner, J. (2015). Validating a standardised test battery for synesthesia: Does the Synesthesia Battery reliably detect synesthesia?. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 375-385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.02.001

Synesthesia is a neurological condition that gives rise to unusual secondary sensations (e.g., reading letters might trigger the experience of colour). Testing the consistency of these sensations over long time intervals is the behavioural gold stand... Read More about Validating a standardised test battery for synesthesia: Does the Synesthesia Battery reliably detect synesthesia?.

Colour fluctuations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia: The effect of clinical and non-clinical mood changes (2014)
Journal Article
Kay, C. L., Carmichael, D. A., Ruffell, H. E., & Simner, J. (2015). Colour fluctuations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia: The effect of clinical and non-clinical mood changes. British Journal of Psychology, 106(3), 487-504. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12102

Synaesthesia is a condition that gives rise to unusual secondary sensations (e.g., colours are perceived when listening to music). These unusual sensations tend to be reported as being stable throughout adulthood (e.g., Simner & Logie, 2007, Neurocas... Read More about Colour fluctuations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia: The effect of clinical and non-clinical mood changes.

Rates of white matter hyperintensities compatible with the radiological profile of multiple sclerosis within self-referred synesthete populations (2014)
Journal Article
Simner, J., Carmichael, D. A., Hubbard, E. M., Morris, Z., & Lawrie, S. M. (2015). Rates of white matter hyperintensities compatible with the radiological profile of multiple sclerosis within self-referred synesthete populations. Neurocase, 21(3), 322-330. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2014.892625

Synesthesia is an inherited condition causing unusual secondary sensations (e.g, sounds might be experienced as both auditory and visual percepts). The condition has been linked with cognitive and perceptual benefits and is considered a benign altern... Read More about Rates of white matter hyperintensities compatible with the radiological profile of multiple sclerosis within self-referred synesthete populations.

Genetics and Inheritance of Synaesthesia (2013)
Book Chapter
Asher, J. E., & Carmichael, D. A. (2013). Genetics and Inheritance of Synaesthesia. In J. Simner, & E. M. Hubbard (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia (23-45). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199603329.013.0002

Synaesthesia is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by anomalous sensory perceptions and associated alterations in cognitive function. This chapter summarises what is known about the familial transmission of synaesthesia and its genetic unde... Read More about Genetics and Inheritance of Synaesthesia.