Synaesthesia

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Synaesthesia

• Lifes too confusing for this stuff

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What is Synaesthesia?

• Defined as an involuntary physical experience of
  a cross-modal association
• Crossing of the senses
• One stimulation of a sense causes the stimulation
  of another sense
• Greek
• Syn together
• Aisthesis perception
• Five main diagnostic features
• Involuntary
• Sensations projected onto environment (i.e. real)
• Sensations remain the same with time and
  situation
• Memorable (often most memorable)
• Emotional causes ecstasy

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History of Synaesthesia

• Possibly first identified/noted by Aristotle (4th
  century B.C.) or Pythagoras (6th century B.C.)
• First reference believed to be in John Lockes
  Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• Speaks of a blind man interpreting scarlet as
  being like the sound of a trumpet.
• Leibniz and Newton both mention in 1704
• Leibniz recounted again a case of a blind man
  interpreting scarlet as being like the sound of a
  trumpet
• Newton Attributed colors to notes of a musical
  scale
• Castel 1735- Noticed same parallel as Newton,
  and created first color organ
• Galton 1883 noticed synaesthesia seemed to be
  frequent in children
• Scriabin 1911 composed Prometheus
• Incorporates music and light
• 1944 attempt to teach colored hearing

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Types of Synaesthesia

• Two or more senses crossed, usually
  unidirectional 31 possible combinations
• Two-Sensory
• Colored Hearing (Chromaesthesia)
• Sound evokes perception of a color
• Colored-Olfaction
• Smell evokes color
• Colored-Gustation
• Taste evokes color
• Tactile-Gustation
• Taste experienced as shape
• Multiple Sensory
• Numbers, letters, words, dates, etc experienced
  as colors

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Whats happening in the brain?

• Idea that its a mental illness is no longer
  valid
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) shows that
  different areas of the brain are active for a
  task for those with Synaesthesia than those
  without
• Depends exclusively on the left brain
• Associated with decreased blood supply to the
  neocortex, resulting in enhanced limbic
  expression
• Leads to belief that synaesthesia is influenced
  more by limbic system than neocortex
• Supported by the fact that there are emotions
  felt when a synaesthetic experience occurs
• Idiopathic (natural/genetic)
• Rebalancing of regional metabolism (similar to
  migraine)
• Everyone perhaps Synaesthetic at birth, and some
  fail to have their senses modulated
• Non-Idiopathic (developed)
• Seizure (electrical discharge in brain) induced
• Drug Induced
• Neuron degeneration
• Brain/Spinal damage

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Living With Synaesthesia

• Generalized Trends
• Order, neatness, symmetry, balance
• More prone to unusual experiences (déjà vu, etc.)
• Right-left hand confusion
• Math abilities and spatial navigation below
  average
• Superior memories
• Imagine
• Conversations being painful or pleasurable from
  flashes of color, and not being able to
  concentrate on what is being said
• Voices blending together in a mix of colors
• Fast speech bringing a confusing mix of pictures
  and/or colors
• Remembering things, even in other languages,
  simply by association with another sense
  (pictures, for instance)

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References

• http//www.macalester.edu/psych/whathap/UBNRP/syn
  esthesia/SYNBRA1.HTM
• Great page, lots of information