Listen to that picture!

Scientists in Pasadena, California, have discovered a new type of condition purely by accident, is has emerged.

According to New Scientist magazine, Dr Melissa Saenz of the California Institute of Technology was showing a group of students around when one of them pointed at a noiseless screensaver and asked "can anyone else hear that?".

After investigating the matter further, the doctor realised the student was describing symptoms related to synaesthesia, a condition which, in one of its most common forms, causes people to see numbers as specific colours.

Dr Saenz said: "I was surprised to realise this particular form had not been reported before and I wanted to see how common it was. The goal of the study was to objectively determine if the sound perception was real."

Further study found that those affected with the new form of the condition performed significantly better at recognising visual patterns and consistently hearing specific sounds than those who were test subjects.

Dr Julia Simner, who researches synaesthesia at the University of Edinburgh, told the BBC she was pleased with the new findings.

"The very nice thing about this paper is they have been able to document a kind which we knew was out there but for which we only had hazy knowledge," she commented.

Synaesthesia comes from the Ancient Greek word meaning sensation.