{"doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae446","title":"Synesthesia is linked to large and extensive differences in brain structure and function as determined by whole-brain biomarkers derived from the HCP (Human Connectome Project) cortical parcellation approach","abstract":"There is considerable interest in understanding the developmental origins and health implications of individual differences in brain structure and function. In this pre-registered study we demonstrate that a hidden subgroup within the general population-people with synesthesia (e.g. who \"hear\" colors)-show a distinctive behavioral phenotype and wide-ranging differences in brain structure and function. We assess the performance of 13 different brain-based biomarkers (structural and functional MRI) for classifying synesthetes against general population samples, using machine learning models. The features in these models were derived from subject-specific parcellations of the cortex using the Human Connectome Project approach. All biomarkers performed above chance with intracortical myelin being a particularly strong predictor that has not been implicated in synesthesia before. Resting state data show widespread changes in the functional connectome (including less hub-based connectivity). These brain-based individual differences within the neurotypical population can be as large as those that differentiate neurotypical from clinical brain states.","journal":"Cerebral Cortex","year":2024,"id":441485,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9108,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1254539,"name":"Julia Simner","orcid":"0000-0003-4789-0138","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254540,"name":"Ivor Simpson","orcid":"0000-0001-5605-6626","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254541,"name":"Charlotte L. Rae","orcid":"0000-0002-4503-4971","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254542,"name":"Magdalena del Río","orcid":"0000-0001-8062-3803","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254543,"name":"Jessica Eccles","orcid":"0000-0002-0062-1216","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":860818,"name":"Chris Racey","orcid":"0000-0001-7081-8260","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254538,"name":"Jamie Ward","orcid":"0000-0001-7007-1902","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":74,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:01:11.152920Z","pmid":"39548352","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}