What Is Synesthesia? | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Health and Wellness

What Is Synesthesia?

See, taste, feel, or hear the rainbow.

156
What Is Synesthesia?
ScienceDaily

Synesthesia is best described as a neurological experience in which senses unite, joining together to create a unique experience for the individual affected. Synesthetes may be able to "taste" words, see or taste sounds, smell colors, see scents, or experience other unique phenomenon involving the senses. This condition affects up to 4 percent of the population.

Characteristics of synesthesia are caused by a "cross-wiring" of the brain. Particular areas may be ignited or fired that deal with other senses when experiencing the world. This may cause colors to have "sounds" or certain letters and numbers to always be a particular color within someone's mind. Some people even claim that certain words have a "taste" to them. Synesthesia is not a hallucination, but rather a relative effect of one sense on the other due to "connected" brain activity.

In a May 2014 study, V.S. Ramachandran and Elizabeth Seckel from the University of San Diego found that synesthetes were able to complete cognitive tasks (such as completing a puzzle) three times as fast and with fewer mistakes than test subjects who do not experience synesthesia. The affected subjects studied experienced color associated with letters of the alphabet, likely causing them to identify letters and distorted words from the puzzle more easily than the average person.

Individuals affected by synesthesia may also have a heightened sense of creativity. Researchers have found increased brain activity in the visual areas of the brain relating to response to sound in those who have synesthesia using positron-emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Neuroscientist and Baylor College of Medicine's Laboratory for Perception and Action director David Eagleman said in an October 2014 interview with Mother Nature Network that testing for synesthesia is best done through consistency.

"If you tell me that your letter 'J' is a very particular shade of powder blue … I can test you on that and have you identify exactly the shade that best matches," said Eagleman. "If you're just being poetic or metaphorical or making something up, then you can't capture those colors again. But if you're really synesthetic, then you'll be able to pick exactly those colors out years later."

David Eagleman's lab has also created an online test that may indicate whether or not someone has synesthesia.

I personally experience synesthesia in the form of seeing letters and numbers as certain colors in my head. I always assumed that this phenomenon was normal and that every person experienced it until I came across an episode of NOVA about the human brain called "How Does The Brain Work?" a few years ago (below). Certain numbers and letters may make an entire word appear that color based upon the letter that the word starts with. For example, my name (Chelsie) appears hot pink in my head because that is the shade that the letter "C" has always been to me. Numbers appear the same way: "23" is yellow because "2" has always been yellow within my mind. Some people think this means that my brain literally sees font color as the corresponding colors. However, this is not exactly the case. I visually see and recognize when a font is black, white, or a different color; but I see the word within my mind as having different shades depending upon the shade of the letter the word begins with.

Individuals who experience/ have experienced synesthesia include Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Pharrell Williams, and Stevie Wonder.


Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
two women enjoying confetti

Summer: a time (usually) free from school work and a time to relax with your friends and family. Maybe you go on a vacation or maybe you work all summer, but the time off really does help. When you're in college you become super close with so many people it's hard to think that you won't see many of them for three months. But, then you get that text saying, "Hey, clear your schedule next weekend, I'm coming up" and you begin to flip out. Here are the emotions you go through as your best friend makes her trip to your house.

Keep Reading...Show less
Kourtney Kardashian

Winter break is over, we're all back at our respective colleges, and the first week of classes is underway. This is a little bit how that week tends to go.

The professor starts to go over something more than the syllabus

You get homework assigned on the first day of class

There are multiple group projects on the syllabus

You learn attendance is mandatory and will be taken every class

Professor starts chatting about their personal life and what inspired them to teach this class

Participation is mandatory and you have to play "icebreaker games"

Everybody is going out because its 'syllabus week' but you're laying in bed watching Grey's Anatomy

Looking outside anytime past 8 PM every night of this week

Nobody actually has any idea what's happening this entire week

Syllabus week is over and you realize you actually have to try now...or not

Now it's time to get back into the REAL swing of things. Second semester is really here and we all have to deal with it.

panera bread

Whether you specialized in ringing people up or preparing the food, if you worked at Panera Bread it holds a special place in your heart. Here are some signs that you worked at Panera in high school.

1. You own so many pairs of khaki pants you don’t even know what to do with them

Definitely the worst part about working at Panera was the uniform and having someone cute come in. Please don’t look at me in my hat.

Keep Reading...Show less
Drake
Hypetrak

1. Nails done hair done everything did / Oh you fancy huh

You're pretty much feeling yourself. New haircut, clothes, shoes, everything. New year, new you, right? You're ready for this semester to kick off.

Keep Reading...Show less
7 Ways to Make Your Language More Transgender and Nonbinary Inclusive

With more people becoming aware of transgender and non-binary people, there have been a lot of questions circulating online and elsewhere about how to be more inclusive. Language is very important in making a space safer for trans and non-binary individuals. With language, there is an established and built-in measure of whether a place could be safe or unsafe. If the wrong language is used, the place is unsafe and shows a lack of education on trans and non-binary issues. With the right language and education, there can be more safe spaces for trans and non-binary people to exist without feeling the need to hide their identities or feel threatened for merely existing.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments