Music synesthesia or cross-modal correspondences? A systematic review of terminology and findings in multisensory research on Chinese music

Abstract

This systematic review examines the use of multisensory terminology and the main findings of English-language studies on Chinese music published from 2002 to 2022. Following PRISMA guidelines (Page et al., 2021), studies were identifi ed through searches of Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and screened according to the inclusion criteria. Eight studies from psychology, cognition, and computer science were included. Deductive coding was used to examine terminology and identify underlying research concepts, while inductive coding was used to synthesize reported findings. The results showed a mismatch between terminology and research concepts. Five studies used the term “synesthesia” to describe sensory correspondences shared across participants. Synesthesia refers to stable and automatic sensory associations at the individual level, whereas sensory correspondences observed across individuals are described as cross-modal correspondences. Three factors may contribute to this terminology mismatch: historical changes in multisensory terminology, linguistic and translation practices, and language economy. The included studies examined sound–color, sound–image, sound–taste, and sound–touch correspondences. The proposed explanations involved perceptual, emotional, neural, and cultural mechanisms. The findings of this study suggest that multisensory research on Chinese music should distinguish cross-modal correspondences from synesthesia and consider cultural factors in cross-modal correspondences research. This review is limited by the small number of included studies and methodological diversity across research fields.