Synaesthesia Connectome MRI (ds004466)
Mapping the Connectome of Synaesthesia: An Open Access MRI Dataset
Structural and resting-state brain MRI of adults with verified synaesthesia and non-synaesthete controls, collected with Human Connectome Project protocols to map brain areas and connectivity linked to synaesthesia. 127 adults from Brighton, UK, in BIDS under CC0.
Overview
Researchers at the University of Sussex scanned more than one hundred people with synaesthesia, together with a smaller group of non-synaesthete controls, to study how brain areas and their connections differ in the condition. They used the Human Connectome Project Development and Ageing protocol so that the scans can be compared or pooled with other cohorts acquired the same way. The raw images were released on OpenNeuro as ds004466 under a CC0 waiver, and the data descriptor appeared in Scientific Data in 2023.
Composition
Snapshot 1.0.3 (April 2025) holds 127 participants: 102 synaesthetes and 25 controls, aged 18 to 68. Every synaesthete passed a consistency test for at least one of ten broad types of synaesthesia, and recruitment aimed for many people with three or more types. Each person has one T1-weighted scan, one T2-weighted scan, four resting-state fMRI runs and two pairs of spin-echo field maps. Behavioural and clinical questionnaires (autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, anxiety, mood, personality, imagery, memory, reasoning, creativity) for these and further non-scanned participants are shared on OSF, and HCP-pipeline outputs such as surfaces, parcellations and connectomes are hosted on NITRC.
Acquisition
All scans come from one Siemens 3T Prisma with a 32-channel head coil at the CISC imaging centre in Brighton. The T1-weighted scan is a multi-echo MPRAGE and the T2-weighted scan a SPACE sequence, both at 0.8 mm with prospective motion correction. The resting-state runs use multiband factor 8 with a TR of 0.8 s and 2 mm voxels, about 24 minutes in total. Faces were removed with pydeface.
Annotations
There are no image annotations. The participants table gives age, sex and group (synaesthete or control).
Known limitations
- The control group is small, because the authors expected users to add controls from other cohorts with the same protocol.
- Most participants are women, and synaesthetes were sampled on purpose to include many with several types.
- The sex counts in participants.tsv differ by one person from the counts in the paper.
- No diffusion or task fMRI was acquired.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 127 subjects.
Sex
- Female 98 77%
- Male 28 22%
- Other 1 1%
sex in participants.tsv of ds004466 (CC0), counted per row from the age, sex and group columns
Contrast / sequence
Groups can overlap
- T1-weighted 127 100%
- T2-weighted 127 100%
- BOLD fMRI 127 100%
From File listing of the ds004466 BIDS repository (CC0), counted per anat and func NIfTI file
Scanner vendor
- Siemens Healthineers 127 100%
MRI hardware and image acquisition in Racey et al. 2023, An Open Science MRI Database of over 100 Synaesthetic Brains and Accompanying Deep Phenotypic Information, Scientific Data
Country
- United Kingdom 127 100%
sidecar JSON files in OpenNeuro ds004466 snapshot 1.0.3 (dataset_description.json, README, CHANGES, sidecar JSON files and size)
Age by condition
Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.
| Synesthesia | |
|---|---|
| 20-29 | 41 |
| 30-39 | 22 |
| 50-59 | 22 |
group and age in participants.tsv of ds004466 (CC0), counted per row from the age, sex and group columns
Age
mean 35.6 ± 13.4, median 33, range 18 to 68
age in participants.tsv of ds004466 (CC0), counted per row from the age, sex and group columns
Condition
Groups can overlap
- Synesthesia 102 80%
- Healthy control 25 20%
Participants in Racey et al. 2023, An Open Science MRI Database of over 100 Synaesthetic Brains and Accompanying Deep Phenotypic Information, Scientific Data
Field strength
- 3 T 127 100%
MRI hardware and image acquisition in Racey et al. 2023, An Open Science MRI Database of over 100 Synaesthetic Brains and Accompanying Deep Phenotypic Information, Scientific Data
Condition by sex
Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.
| Female | Male | |
|---|---|---|
| Synesthesia | 79 | 22 |
| Healthy control | 19 | · |
group and sex in participants.tsv of ds004466 (CC0), counted per row from the age, sex and group columns
Age by sex
Reported cross table. Missing cells were not published (fewer than 10 or not reported).
- 2150-59n/a
- 1140-49n/a
- 2230-39n/a
- 3720-29n/a
sex and age in participants.tsv of ds004466 (CC0), counted per row from the age, sex and group columns
Contrast combinations
How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.
| T1w | T2w | bold | Subjects with exactly this set |
|---|---|---|---|
127 |
From File listing of the ds004466 BIDS repository (CC0), counted per anat and func NIfTI file
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
Download without an account
Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal
Public domain dedication. Do anything with the data, including commercial use, without asking and without having to give credit.
dataset_description.json of snapshot 1.0.3 states "License" CC0.
What you can do
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
What you can share
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
What you must do
- No
- Share alike No
- No
- No
- Manuscript review No
- Release code No
- Return results No
- Delete after use No
Limits
- No
- Location limits No
Citation
Racey C, Kampoureli C, Bowen-Hill O, et al. An Open Science MRI Database of over 100 Synaesthetic Brains and Accompanying Deep Phenotypic Information. Scientific Data 10, 766 (2023). doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02664-4
Sources
Every number on this page comes from one of these documents. Each chart names the table or page it is taken from. The raw numbers are in stats.csv.
- Racey et al. 2023, An Open Science MRI Database of over 100 Synaesthetic Brains and Accompanying Deep Phenotypic Information, Scientific Data paper
- OpenNeuro ds004466 snapshot 1.0.3 (dataset_description.json, README, CHANGES, sidecar JSON files and size) website
- participants.tsv of ds004466 (CC0), counted per row from the age, sex and group columns computed
- File listing of the ds004466 BIDS repository (CC0), counted per anat and func NIfTI file computed