SYNESTHESIA: A Must-Read Phenomenon

Growing up, music played a huge part in my life. Ranging from 70’s soft rock to 90’s hip-hop to the current mainstream trends, music ruled a huge part in my childhood. Although, I knew, that something was clearly different with me than the rest of the members of my family when it comes to “perceive” music. To others, it might simply mean to feel the melodies, tunes, and understand the lyrics subconsciously. To me, however, perceiving it meant literally.

I was 16, nearly 17,  when I discovered that I had an unusual yet fascinating neurological condition which is most popularly known as  “Synesthesia” that not only answered a lot of questions I had about my own perception but also helped to change it and use it for the greater goods. I was in my junior year of high school, when I found out during my choir practicing period, that when asked what color does your voice actually look like, I answered “Maroon” out loud without any hesitation. I didn’t realize that the question was meant to be a fun and humorous one. Nonetheless, my answer to the query was as serious as it could ever be back then, and it is still the same even now. However, it led me to wonder why no one took me seriously on it. Don’t others see colors when they hear melodies or even in their voices the same way I do? After that incident, followed by a series of few trips down to neurologists and cognitive psychologists, while doing my own research along, it was then clear to me what I actually had and what it meant that made me unique from everyone else around me.

SYNESTHESIA: An Introduction

Synesthesia, according to Psychology today, is basically a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision). Simply to be put, when one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time. In my case, whenever I hear sounds, may it be in the form of someone’s voice or just a song, my secondary involuntary sense- that will be my vision- gets activated. However, it could range from objects such as letters, patterns, numbers, and even people’s names, while their involuntary sense reactions could be in the form of smell or taste (flavors).

Though much has not been discovered about this speculated “sixth sense”, researchers may agree to some sensory enhancement. Some scientists have even put forward the argument that people with synesthesia- also known as Synesthetes- are better at distinguishing smells along with colors than the rest of the population.

Synesthesia can enhance cognitive abilities such as memory and creativity, as it is much easier to make connections between these two concepts than the rest. It is believed that even renowned artists Vincent Van Gogh, Vladimir Nabakov, Billy Joel, and even Billie Eilish have synesthesia!

Synesthesia may be associative because when the thoughts and colors are projected into reality, the senses are linked and correlated in the mind of a human, or projective.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SYNESTHESIA

So how common is synesthesia? Research say that about 3 to 5 percent of the population has been estimated to have synesthesia of any kind. And among those, women are more likely to be synesthetes than men.

It is to be noted that synesthesia ranges from person to person, and most of the time, they might also disagree when it comes to comparing their own perception. In simple words, if one synesthete thinks that they perceive the letter ‘L’ as the color green, another synesthete, however, might see it as blue. In addition to sight, certain synesthetes sense textures, hear sounds in reaction to smells or equate shape with tastes. Because any one of the senses may be involved in synesthesia, there can be as many as 60 to 80 subtypes. However, not all causes of synesthesia have been reported or investigated, and the cause remains unsettled. In this way, media related exposures take a lot of advantage of synesthesia-related multimodal mental imagery (ranging from novels and movies to cooking shows).

While in synesthesia, almost any combination of senses could be possible, according to psychology today, here are some of the common ones:

• AUDITORY TEXTILE SYNESTHESIA: It happens when a sound (such as tingling on the back of one’s neck) triggers a similar bodily reaction.
• CHROMESTHESIA: It happens when such sounds may cause you to see colors (like hearing someone’s voice).
• GRAPHEME COLOR SYNESTHESIA: Develops when particular colors are paired with letters and numbers.
• MIRROR TOUCH SYNESTHESIA: This phenomenon has been described as a kind of supercharged empathy: A person feels as though they’re being touched if they witness it happening to someone else. It can be benign—such as an observed advantage in recognizing facial expressions—or burdensome, as in the case of a neurologist who felt intense pressure in his chest when he saw a patient receiving CPR.
• NUMBER FORM: Occurs when a mental map of numbers involuntarily appears whenever someone thinks of numbers.
• ORDINAL LINGUISTIC PERSONIFICATION: This is a kind of synesthesia where ordered sequences (e.g., the days of the week) are associated with personalities or genders.
• SPATIAL SEQUENCE SYNESTHESIA: Involves seeing numbers or numerical sequences as points in space (e.g., close or far away).

Among them all, Grapheme-color synesthesia is the most frequently seen example of synesthesia. Chromesthesia is also fairly common. I too am a part of those synesthetes that has chromesthesia.

Synesthetes can encounter some odd and convincing associations. For example, they may be able to taste letters (lexical-gustatory synesthesia) or have a clear spatial experience when thinking about time units (spatial time units/sequence-space synesthesia). SWIMMING STYLE SYNESTHESIA, or seeing colors while watching or thinking about a particular swim move, is often rare.

IS IT RELATED TO MENTAL ILLNESS?

No, synesthesia is neither a mental illness nor a disorder. Rather, you can say that this is a fresh way of understanding the world through a fusion of senses that is particularly unique to an individual. Synesthesia is, however, hereditary. Meaning it can be passed on from generation to generation. In my case, my chromesthesia was passed on by my grandmother to my mother and then from her to me.

BENEFITS:

As having synesthesia is not harmful to your brain or your senses, it is safe to say that there is no fear of any future distress. Although when it comes to its benefits, it is believed synesthetes have more vivid mental imagery as compared to non-synesthetes. Some might say it is because of its great relationship with the brain. There is also an increase in creative thinking, as it is found that synesthetes can form metaphors quite naturally.

CONCLUSION:

Synesthesia is a field that has not been quite broadly researched upon. Hence, not all of the researchers agree to all of the standards. Some might say it begins at birth, because a child’s brain is hyperconnected, and then as the child develops, the connections are cut or trimmed. Because of this, there is no clinical diagnosis for it, But it is possible to take tests such as the  “THE SYNESTHESIA BATTERY” which evaluates the degree to which one makes connections between senses. Although, the relations have to be consistent to certainly have synesthesia. They should take place any time one of the two senses is invoked, over some time, and they should be unforgettable experiences: letters are associated with the same very particular shade of color every time they are read, and sounds often elicit the matching texture, even months later.

So tell me, do you have Synesthesia the way I do? What type is it? Do the other members of your family also have it? How many of you doubt that you might have it? Did you like my article? Do share your feedback. They are always welcomed!!