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Duffy experiences her world through synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon that involves the blending of two or more senses — like hearing music in color.

In Duffy's case, she sees letters and words, both written and spoken, as having color. "I see the alphabet as a landscape, an upwardly sloping trail."

She explores this topic in "Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their World," a book that blends scientific research and personal testimonies.

"I wrote the book so that more people can learn about diversity in perceptions, different brain patterns. We are all very unique in the way we view the world," she said.

Synesthesia has only recently come under more scientific scrutiny. "People have known about it for hundreds of years, but there's been more research in the past 15 years or so because scientists now have the technology to study it," she said.

One of those researchers is Peter Grossenbacher, a psychology professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colo. "Any variation in perceptions tells us something about how the human mind works,” he said.

The subject has made cover stories for journals like "Trends in Cognitive Sciences" (January 2001) and the American Psychological Association’s "Monitor on Psychology" (March 2001).

It is estimated one in 2,000 people experience synesthesia, according a Simon Baron-Cohen study published in 1996, but Grossenbacher said he suspects the number of synesthetes may be much higher, around one in 200.

"Synesthesia is a direct experience, just as when someone looks at a painting and sees color, the color or sensation a synesethete experiences is just as real," he said.

New York artist Carol Steen creates paintings and sculptures to express what she sees through synesthesia. "People would ask me what I see. I couldn’t answer that with words. ... Everything has a black background, and all the colors are constantly changing," she said. "It’s like watching a movie."

Though color seems to predominate, any sensation can be colored by synesthesia, according to Edward Hubbard, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego, who has been working with Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Center of Brain and Cognition, on synesthesia studies for the past four years.

In a "60 Minutes II" (CBS) segment, "A Sixth Sense," which ran last Aug. 15, Carol Crane reported that she feels music, experiencing a tactile sensation with different sounds. For example, she said she feels guitar music on her ankles and violins on her face. In the same segment, synesthete James Wannerton said he tastes words, like the runny-eggs taste of ‘New York' and the 'lumpy mashed potatoes' of London.

Color permeates Steen's world. She sees colored letters, numbers, words and sounds. She also perceives color through touching and smelling.

"The colors in my voice are driving me nuts. The brown doesn’t go with anything I’m wearing," she said, joking about a cold. "When I’m going to make a painting, I go to the record store to get my colors. I get my CDs first and then buy paint."

"There have been a few studies that hint at the correlation between synesthetic tendencies and creativity. ... In the data we’ve collected, most of the people we’ve worked with are especially intelligent, creative and interesting," Grossenbacher said.

Duffy said artist David Hockney, who once designed sets for the New York Metropolitan Opera House, used to incorporate the color he saw from an opera's music to design its set. Her book shows the shades or orange seen by New York City Ballet composer Michael Torke in his work, "Ecstatic Orange Score in C."

Among famous artists from the past who demonstrated signs of synesthesia are Charles Baudelaire (French poet, 1821-1867), Vladimir Nabokov (Russian novelist, 1899-1977) and Arthur Rimbaud (French poet, 1854-1891).

Artists and musicians are not the only notable synesthetes. Physicist Richard Feynman, 1965 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for advances in quantum physics, saw mathematical equations as having color, Duffy said.

Duffy and Steen founded the American Synesthesia Association, an organization that evolved from a conversation in Steen's artist's loft, in 1995. "We were here in my loft, which has 12-foot ceilings and windows from floor to ceiling. We were talking about how hard it was for us to get information, and we decided that we wanted to make a way for it to be easier for others," Steen said.

The association's third annual conference will be held May 2-4 at New York City’s Rockefeller University. More information is available at www.multimediaplace.com/asa.

Steen discovered her synesthetic tendencies at age 7, but didn’t know of the ‘word’ synesthesia until she was 30.

Duffy said many people discover their synesthesia by accident.

"My experience was similar to a lot of other people's, where you don't even think to mention a letter's color because you assume everyone else sees it the same way," she said. "For me, I was 16, having a conversation with my father about when I was little and just learning the alphabet. We were talking about how I always had problems writing the letter 'R' until I realized it was similar to 'P.' And I said, 'I was surprised I could change a letter from yellow to orange just by adding another line.' Then, of course, he asked me about the colors of the letters."

Duffy said it's a good idea for parents to look for clues to whether their child is synesthetic. "If a child brings up colors of letters or numbers, if your child talks in terms of color, that's a good indication. It's a good thing for a parent to ask about it, and make sure the child feels like it's fine."

Synesthesia can help reinforce the memory of words and spellings, and enhance learning experiences, Duffy said.

"Synesthesia can show us details about the mapping between senses. ... it’s an opportunity to explore how the brain works in all of us," Hubbard said.

Grossenbacher said anyone interested in learning more about synesthesia can contact him by e-mail at peterg@naropa.edu.

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