SYNESTHESIA

I have always thought it would be interesting, even though it may be difficult, to be a synesthete. I wanted to experience multi-dimensions and senses especially those that pertained to color.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which the stimulation of one sense involuntarily triggers the awareness of another or when the brain processes data in the form of several senses at once.

Imagine hearing sounds and visualizing spiraling colors. While it is very uncommon, occurring in only about 1 in 2,000 people, it affects far more women than men. In the U.S., studies show that three times as many women as men have synesthesia; in the U.K., eight times as many women have been reported to have it. The reason for this difference is not known.

In a 2017 survey of 11,000 college students, researchers found that children who grew up hearing and speaking two languages starting at a very young age were more likely to have synesthesia than people who did not speak two languages starting at a very young age. "Groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds have different rates of synesthesia — and quite different rates," said a study co-author Marcus Watson, an experimental psychologist at York University in Toronto. "It ranges from 0% to about 5% depending on what their language background is."

Another theory by Simon Baron-Cohen, from the University of Cambridge, is that synesthesia results from overabundant neural connections. The walls between the nodules are broken down and there is more communication between them.

The American Psychological Association (APA) finds the condition is more prevalent in artists, writers, and musicians. 25% of people in these professions have the condition, according to Psychology Today. Well-known artists with synesthesia include; painters- Wassily Kandinsky and David Hockney; writer- Vladimir Nabokov; musicians- Stevie Wonder, Lorde, Pharrel, and Jimmy Hendrix.

There are many different types of synesthesia, almost 60 types have been reported but the most common is Grapheme-color synesthesia, which is when letters or numbers seem to be colored on the written page or visualized as colored in the mind.

Other common types include:

-Smelling certain scents when hearing a sound.

-Feeling that time has a physical characteristic.

-Seeing a certain color when feeling pain.

“Many researchers are interested in synesthesia because it may reveal something about human consciousness. One of the biggest mysteries in the study of consciousness is what is called the binding problem. No one knows how we bind all of our perceptions together into one complete whole. For example, when you hold a flower, you see the colors, you see its shape, you smell its scent, and you feel its texture. Your brain manages to bind all of these perceptions together into one concept of a flower. Synesthetes might have additional perceptions that add to their concept of a flower. Studying these perceptions may someday help us understand how we perceive our world.”
- University of Washington

I can't wait to discover new studies in synesthesia that may one day unlock the mysteries of perception.