Synaesthesia

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For other uses, see Synaesthesia (disambiguation)}}}.

This picture is used as a test to demonstrate that people may not attach sounds to shapes arbitrarily: A remote tribe calls one of these shapes Booba and the other Kiki. Decide which is which and then click the image to check your answer.

Synaesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia, synesthesia); from the Greek (syn-) “union,” and (aesthesis) “sensation,” is a neurological rarity in which two or more of the senses are interconnected, resulting in a more holistic experience. For example, music may be seen as colour or a forest may be heard as a poem. Synaethesia should not be mistaken for artistic interpretation; synaethestes are not simply interpretting but actually perceive reality on a fundamentally different level than non-synaestheses. Because synaethesia is rare, occuring in only 1 % of the population, many synaetheses don't realize that their experiences are abnormal. Clinical synesthetic studies show:

• Synesthesia is genetic but it is not hereditary. It is consistent throughout life and often sets the synesthetic child apart from non-synesthethic parents, by which the child will begin displaying vastly different thought processes as young as adolescence. A synesthete is born with the ability to perceive numerous concepts on alternative levels.

• Synesthetes have an excellent memory for the triggers of synesthetic experience, such as music, literature and science. They are, on average, more intelligent than then general population, scoring high in IQ and cognition testing.

• Approximately 20 percent of synethese suffer from a severe mental disorder such as bipolar disorder, major depression or schizophrenia. Synesthesia itself is not a disorder; why people with mental illness are more likely to experience synesthesia is unknown, but brain research has suggested that the development of neurotransmitters has much to do with it.

• Synesthetes are prone to hypersensitivity toward light, sound and smell (eg. they might feel violently overpowered by even a small amount of perfume). Normal amounts of stimulation are excessive because their sensory input is advanced.

• Despite displaying more advanced cognitive skills than the general population, Synesthetes often have difficulty remembering numbers, such as home phone numbers and street addresses. This can be attributed to their unfamiliarity with concrete situations.

• Synesthetes are essentially solitary individuals. This could be partially due to hypersensitivty but many researchers have claimed that because their brains function on a fundamentally different plane, they prefer personal isolation to communicating with non-synesthetes.

• Synesthetes excel in advanced trains of thought such as philosophy and writing, as well as in music. This can be largely attributed to the lack of boundaries and the faster electro-neurological connections within their brains.

People with synaesthetic experiences

• Syd Barrett, lead singer/songwriter of Pink Floyd.
• Vincent Van Gogh, painter
• [Andrew Joseph Graves], composer
• Julian Casablancas, composer, singer, songwriter of the Strokes.
• Albert Einstein, physicist
• William Butler Yeats, poet.
• Richard Feynman, physicist
• Vladimir Nabokov, author
• Arthur Rimbaud poet (specifically his poem Voyelles).
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer.
• Franz Schubert viewed E minor as like "a maiden robed in white and with a rose-red bow on her breast."^[link]
• Alexander Nikolayevich Skriabin, composer
• Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
• Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, claimed to hear music sometimes while designing buildings.

Synesthesia associations

• [American Synesthesia Association]
• [Australian Synaesthesia Association]
• [Belgian Synesthesia Association]
• [UK Synaesthesia Association]

See also

• Cognitive neuroscience
• Noise health effects
• Over-illumination
• Parosmia
• Perception
• Kinesthesia
• Schmidt Sting Pain Index (A good example.)
• Multiple Intelligence (Learning using multiple senses)
• Visual thinking
• Tele-synaesthesia

External links

• [Synesthesia in Chinese]
• [A forum with discussions concerning many different types of synesthesia]
• [A community of synesthetes on livejournal.com, for discussion and sharing of personal experiences and theories]
• [Interview with a Synesthete]
• Scientific American article [Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes] ([PDF version]) by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard, May 2003.
• [ColorOfMySound.com] Upload your own audio track and let the world weigh in on what color it looks like. A community driven version of the Color Of Sound experiment below.
• [Cortex: Special Issue on Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Synesthesia] The neuroscience journal Cortex presents a special issue focusing on modern scientific research of synesthesia.
• [The Color of Sound] Flash experiment where you can assign colors to sounds and see how other people voted.
• [Synaesthesia and Migraine]Synaesthesia may occur as a visual migraine aura.
• [People who feel color gets scientific acceptance]
• [link] Crétien van Campen, 'Artistic and psychological experiments with synesthesia' gives the historical background.
• [Synaesthesia and Education:] a research project at the University of Cambridge investigating the effects of grapheme-colour synaesthesia on numerical processing in children.
• [Museums of the Mind], a synesthesia portal by Dr. Hugo Heyrman, more specific on the interaction between art and synesthesia.
• [A Brief History of Synaesthesia and Music]
• [A Mango-Shaped Space, a novel about a 13-year-old with synesthesia by Wendy Mass]
• [Synaesthesia - union of the senses] (from Kuro5hin)
• [Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens] by Patricia Lynne Duffy
• [Why some see colours in numbers] at BBC News, 24 March, 2005
• [Artificial synesthesia (for the blind)]
• [Infantile synaesthesia]
• [Synesthesia Music] Music generated from any pictures in 5 seconds
• [Draw your music?!!] Software plays what you draw
• [Visualising Music?!!] Software displays your music to animation
• [The synesthesia battery]
• [Mirror Writing could be linked to Synaesthesia]
• [Shem Booth-Spain, Synesthesia, Cybernetic culture, Artist/Producer]
• [synesthesia and psychic auras]

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