Great artists tap into the way the brain muddles up the senses, according to a study that offers a scientific explanation of our love of ballet, opera and other blends of sounds and sights.

Vision and hearing are inextricably linked in everyone's brain, but this is only really apparent to the one or two per cent of us who are synaesthetes — those with a rare condition in which the senses consciously mingle.

Scientists at University College London, attempting to recreate what synaesthetes experience, have now concluded that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder: we all rate certain combinations of vision and music as more beautiful than others.

To study if synaesthetes can detect the more appealing combinations of sight and sound, Dr Ward asked six synaesthetes to draw and describe their visual experiences of music played by the New London Orchestra. A control group of six people without the condition were asked to do the same.

This shows that while people without synaesthesia are not able to hear a painting or see a piece of music in a literal sense, they are able to sense the crossover and tend to choose the "correct" image.