Synesthesia Encyclopedia(cytowic.net)
cytowic.net
Synesthesia Encyclopedia
http://cytowic.net/Synesthesia/Synesth__Encyclo_/synesth__encyclo_.HTM
15 comments
Thanks for the link. I have a couple of kinds of synesthesia myself (I wrote about my experience here: http://michaelgr.com/2007/09/14/my-experience-with-synesthes... )
Cool...I posted this up because I'm pretty sure I have some kind of number-form ("spatial-sequence") synesthesia. I've always been good with math since I can look at a problem (numbers, equations, etc.) and "see" it's shape. This is actually very handy when coding as well (different sorts of coding problems have their own shapes too!)
Anyone else have experiences they can share?
Anyone else have experiences they can share?
Numbers and letters have consistent colors and combine and "influence" each other inside words and large numbers. At an early age I asked my mom to explain exactly why 113 was green, 114 was pink, 115 black, etc. It took a while to get the idea across, and we were both very puzzled. She dug out an article on synaesthesia and we learned together.
I also see colors and shapes in music. Complex melodies are very beautiful. I feel as though I can "move" between "curtains" of different musical voices. I have very good relative pitch because I can see the harmonies.
I sometimes mix up things in very odd ways because they have similar colors: 9->u, 5->e, and (god help me) names like linda->julia and teresa->desiree.
I also see colors and shapes in music. Complex melodies are very beautiful. I feel as though I can "move" between "curtains" of different musical voices. I have very good relative pitch because I can see the harmonies.
I sometimes mix up things in very odd ways because they have similar colors: 9->u, 5->e, and (god help me) names like linda->julia and teresa->desiree.
I envy you aristus - the benefits certainly sound like they outweigh the negatives!
I wonder if you can induce this in a normal brain somehow, like those tongue-sight or smell remapping experiments.
I wonder if you can induce this in a normal brain somehow, like those tongue-sight or smell remapping experiments.
I'm not sure. I don't see colors on a page like others do, and I'm not convinced that my brain is somehow abnormal.
Your idea of smell remapping is very interesting. If I understand you, maybe some sort of biofeedback device can stimulate the sensation. Deaf people use voicemapping software to help them biofeedback their pronunciation.
There are three times in early life when I remember noticing the effect very strongly: when my sister first taught me to sing harmony (age 3 or 4), when I first heard outre jazz (7? I didn't like it) and when I first really paid attention to Bach (8 or 9). Each time I was in a receptive mood and I was confronted with novel stimuli.
There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence for synaesthetic "hallucinations" brought on by drugs, exhaustion, or sensory deprivation. Maybe there are some clues there.
And if all else fails, there's probably a synaesthesia-mode for Emacs. :)
Your idea of smell remapping is very interesting. If I understand you, maybe some sort of biofeedback device can stimulate the sensation. Deaf people use voicemapping software to help them biofeedback their pronunciation.
There are three times in early life when I remember noticing the effect very strongly: when my sister first taught me to sing harmony (age 3 or 4), when I first heard outre jazz (7? I didn't like it) and when I first really paid attention to Bach (8 or 9). Each time I was in a receptive mood and I was confronted with novel stimuli.
There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence for synaesthetic "hallucinations" brought on by drugs, exhaustion, or sensory deprivation. Maybe there are some clues there.
And if all else fails, there's probably a synaesthesia-mode for Emacs. :)
i have a funny variant thats a combo of :
1)ideas have textures that denote elegance, bs, too complicated, wrong
2)when i understand a topic well enough (eg some subset of math) and i'm not stressed, all i need to do is translate a problem into the way i visualize stuff, see if i can fill in the details of the shape, and then figure out how to translate that detailed shape into normal written proof notation.
the (2) bit is tricky and while on one hand it lets me come up with some simple proofs/code, on the other hand it can to be too slow for the pacing needed to get several problem sets done at a reasonable pace
edit: in fact, the idea -> texture bit is so strong that its essentially how I choose research at a certain level, though that requires sifting through enough ideas
1)ideas have textures that denote elegance, bs, too complicated, wrong
2)when i understand a topic well enough (eg some subset of math) and i'm not stressed, all i need to do is translate a problem into the way i visualize stuff, see if i can fill in the details of the shape, and then figure out how to translate that detailed shape into normal written proof notation.
the (2) bit is tricky and while on one hand it lets me come up with some simple proofs/code, on the other hand it can to be too slow for the pacing needed to get several problem sets done at a reasonable pace
edit: in fact, the idea -> texture bit is so strong that its essentially how I choose research at a certain level, though that requires sifting through enough ideas
I wouldn't have called these synaesthesia:
Colored personalities
Colored tastes
Colored pain
Colored odors
Colored temperature
but (of the list at the bottom) those five are all things I've arguably experienced; that said it's hard to know what to say of these really as the distinction between a strong+reliable association and synaesthesia proper when you're talking about more-abstract "senses"; given that they're all color<->nonvisual perception the simpler explanation is probably just strong color associations, not synaesthasia.
I was motivated to post b/c I was actually surprised that "colored personalities" were as high on the list of responses (or really on it at all); it's surprising it's (apparently) that common.
Colored personalities
Colored tastes
Colored pain
Colored odors
Colored temperature
but (of the list at the bottom) those five are all things I've arguably experienced; that said it's hard to know what to say of these really as the distinction between a strong+reliable association and synaesthesia proper when you're talking about more-abstract "senses"; given that they're all color<->nonvisual perception the simpler explanation is probably just strong color associations, not synaesthasia.
I was motivated to post b/c I was actually surprised that "colored personalities" were as high on the list of responses (or really on it at all); it's surprising it's (apparently) that common.
Ah for actual descriptions.
"Colored personalities": within a few seconds of meeting someone in person I have a very strong colored visual image associated with them; this is mostly consistent (subsequent meetings with the same person will induce very similar visual images) and it feels like there are patterns to what sorts of people yield what colored image but there's no easily-summarizable rule like "sad people == blue, happy people == red".
The sequence of perceptions is roughly:
- step 1: see person, wait a few seconds
- step 2: color-pattern visual image emerges
- step 3: the color-pattern visual image itself triggers a reaction in me (at a subconscious/"gut feeling" level) about what I'll likely think of this person, eg particular colors+patterns will leave me with a feeling that I'll be more likely to get along with or not get along with a particular person, or that a particular person is/is not reliable, etc
...so it's basically an involuntary/automatic production of a colored visual pattern that then triggers a gestalt response (particular color patterns suggest a person's personality is composed of a particular weighted superposition of eigenpersonalities, so to speak).
I'd say the accuracy is pretty high; I don't keep exact score but I'd ballpark these reactions as accurate in the high 80% range (or higher).
Before I saw in the linked article that 6% or so of respondents mentioned "colored personalities" I wouldn't have thought to call this synaesthesia; a perceptual quirk, sure, but not synaesthesia proper. Even now, without knowing more about what the people claiming to have "colored personality" synaesthesia are actually claiming to perceive I'm not sure that what I just described is the same thing, really.
The simplest interpretation of the underlying process would be that there's some mix of gestalt-ish perceptions of things like: gait, posture, body movement patterns, eye movement patterns, and facial expression movement patterns that can be perceived quickly and work as fairly reliable indicators of "personality"; the "synaesthasia" here works by having those gestalts get mapped to some combination of color + spatial pattern which then get superposed and presented.
I figure the same perceptual process (sans colored image) is at work in everyone; assuming my interpretation of the underlying mechanic is correct the only "advantage" this form of "synaesthesia" provides is that such gestalt perceptions pass through a portion of my mind more easily accessible to conscious thought (and introspection), which makes it somewhat easier to introspectively modify my behavior ("my gut is telling me this person is a flake, but even so I need to be polite, so let me act polite." instead of unknowingly / unintentionally treating the person like I would treat a flake due to automatic perceptions) or to adjust what I'm doing to the specific person at hand ("clearly this person is like THIS so I should present this material like THAT").
Neither of those behavior adjustments requires this "synaesthesia"; it's just easier to remember to do it when there's a consciously-accessible visual flag reminding you to do it.
That's rather lengthy I know but I don't know a shorter way to summarize a "synaesthesia" of something abstract ("personality"); I'm still on the fence as to whether it's best characterized as "synaesthesia" or just a perceptual / personality quirk, and short of ultra-granular real-time brain imaging becoming available I don't know that the distinction between "synaesthesia"/"perceptual quirk" will be cleanly resolvable.
The others are simpler to summarize:
"Colored tastes": most flavors have a color pattern associated with them that isn't really associated with the item's actual color. EG: ketchup is a dull grey blob fading to an undersaturated neon pink around the edges; it disappears by shrinking inwards (the pink fringe remaining constant width as it does so, until it becomes so small that there's no gray interior) until it vanishes. Whereas mustard is a shotgun-distributed bunch of deep deep green-brown rectangles (much wider than tall) with purplish-green grains in them that vanish first (to a deeper purple-green) then the surrounding rectangles fade to the same purple green then the green abruptly fades out leaving a hazy translucent unsaturated purple stain that itself slowly evaporates.
Specific flavors' visuals are pretty consistent. Since you ask: this doesn't give me any particular ratatouille-style knack for cooking or any heightened enjoyment of food; it seems pretty useless generally.
"Colored Pain": what's to summarize here? Examples are that extreme muscle fatigue is somewhat ultraviolet (eg a deep black-purple core with a very thin, very bright purple fringe around the deg) and is more ripply (like sand dunes) if it's on my backside and more like prison bars or a city skyline (lots of tall-but-narrow parallel vertical strips); tendonitis-style inflamed pinching is more white-yellow (white core yellow fringe) and ellipsoidal, with some overlay of radial banding and grid overlays...etc.
"Colored Odors": odors have (nonsensical) colors attached. Vanilla is a circular white-yellow area with ripples like it'd have if a wind was blowing "upwards"; seaweed has a relaxing orange-yellow undulation to it; hotdogs have a white-yellow "jailbar" look, etc.
"Colored temperatures": should really be "colored temperature + humidity + airflow pattern (eg how windy is it, how choppy is the wind)". Here the color is mostly about airflow and the various grid patterns are more about temperature.
As with the longer explanation about "colored personalities" I would be hesitant to call these synaesthesia proper; unlike seeing letters in particular colors these perceptions are not directly overlaid on my normal visual field; they're just simply very prominently displayed in minds eye in response to various stimuli, and I think of them more as color associations then as synaesthetic perceptions.
I've gone into this much detail b/c I was surprised to see these mentioned as often as they were by self-identified synaesthetes, so I figured may as well post the general experiences and see if anything turns up.
"Colored personalities": within a few seconds of meeting someone in person I have a very strong colored visual image associated with them; this is mostly consistent (subsequent meetings with the same person will induce very similar visual images) and it feels like there are patterns to what sorts of people yield what colored image but there's no easily-summarizable rule like "sad people == blue, happy people == red".
The sequence of perceptions is roughly:
- step 1: see person, wait a few seconds
- step 2: color-pattern visual image emerges
- step 3: the color-pattern visual image itself triggers a reaction in me (at a subconscious/"gut feeling" level) about what I'll likely think of this person, eg particular colors+patterns will leave me with a feeling that I'll be more likely to get along with or not get along with a particular person, or that a particular person is/is not reliable, etc
...so it's basically an involuntary/automatic production of a colored visual pattern that then triggers a gestalt response (particular color patterns suggest a person's personality is composed of a particular weighted superposition of eigenpersonalities, so to speak).
I'd say the accuracy is pretty high; I don't keep exact score but I'd ballpark these reactions as accurate in the high 80% range (or higher).
Before I saw in the linked article that 6% or so of respondents mentioned "colored personalities" I wouldn't have thought to call this synaesthesia; a perceptual quirk, sure, but not synaesthesia proper. Even now, without knowing more about what the people claiming to have "colored personality" synaesthesia are actually claiming to perceive I'm not sure that what I just described is the same thing, really.
The simplest interpretation of the underlying process would be that there's some mix of gestalt-ish perceptions of things like: gait, posture, body movement patterns, eye movement patterns, and facial expression movement patterns that can be perceived quickly and work as fairly reliable indicators of "personality"; the "synaesthasia" here works by having those gestalts get mapped to some combination of color + spatial pattern which then get superposed and presented.
I figure the same perceptual process (sans colored image) is at work in everyone; assuming my interpretation of the underlying mechanic is correct the only "advantage" this form of "synaesthesia" provides is that such gestalt perceptions pass through a portion of my mind more easily accessible to conscious thought (and introspection), which makes it somewhat easier to introspectively modify my behavior ("my gut is telling me this person is a flake, but even so I need to be polite, so let me act polite." instead of unknowingly / unintentionally treating the person like I would treat a flake due to automatic perceptions) or to adjust what I'm doing to the specific person at hand ("clearly this person is like THIS so I should present this material like THAT").
Neither of those behavior adjustments requires this "synaesthesia"; it's just easier to remember to do it when there's a consciously-accessible visual flag reminding you to do it.
That's rather lengthy I know but I don't know a shorter way to summarize a "synaesthesia" of something abstract ("personality"); I'm still on the fence as to whether it's best characterized as "synaesthesia" or just a perceptual / personality quirk, and short of ultra-granular real-time brain imaging becoming available I don't know that the distinction between "synaesthesia"/"perceptual quirk" will be cleanly resolvable.
The others are simpler to summarize:
"Colored tastes": most flavors have a color pattern associated with them that isn't really associated with the item's actual color. EG: ketchup is a dull grey blob fading to an undersaturated neon pink around the edges; it disappears by shrinking inwards (the pink fringe remaining constant width as it does so, until it becomes so small that there's no gray interior) until it vanishes. Whereas mustard is a shotgun-distributed bunch of deep deep green-brown rectangles (much wider than tall) with purplish-green grains in them that vanish first (to a deeper purple-green) then the surrounding rectangles fade to the same purple green then the green abruptly fades out leaving a hazy translucent unsaturated purple stain that itself slowly evaporates.
Specific flavors' visuals are pretty consistent. Since you ask: this doesn't give me any particular ratatouille-style knack for cooking or any heightened enjoyment of food; it seems pretty useless generally.
"Colored Pain": what's to summarize here? Examples are that extreme muscle fatigue is somewhat ultraviolet (eg a deep black-purple core with a very thin, very bright purple fringe around the deg) and is more ripply (like sand dunes) if it's on my backside and more like prison bars or a city skyline (lots of tall-but-narrow parallel vertical strips); tendonitis-style inflamed pinching is more white-yellow (white core yellow fringe) and ellipsoidal, with some overlay of radial banding and grid overlays...etc.
"Colored Odors": odors have (nonsensical) colors attached. Vanilla is a circular white-yellow area with ripples like it'd have if a wind was blowing "upwards"; seaweed has a relaxing orange-yellow undulation to it; hotdogs have a white-yellow "jailbar" look, etc.
"Colored temperatures": should really be "colored temperature + humidity + airflow pattern (eg how windy is it, how choppy is the wind)". Here the color is mostly about airflow and the various grid patterns are more about temperature.
As with the longer explanation about "colored personalities" I would be hesitant to call these synaesthesia proper; unlike seeing letters in particular colors these perceptions are not directly overlaid on my normal visual field; they're just simply very prominently displayed in minds eye in response to various stimuli, and I think of them more as color associations then as synaesthetic perceptions.
I've gone into this much detail b/c I was surprised to see these mentioned as often as they were by self-identified synaesthetes, so I figured may as well post the general experiences and see if anything turns up.
A famous synesthete was the late great Richard Feynman. I think he had written it in one of his books that he felt unconfortable with that feeling, and didn't talk much about it.
Is any one aware of how to cause synesthesia in people who don't have it, other than using drugs...or by using drugs: keeping it permanent?
As far as anyone knows, synaesthesia is a fundamental property of how some people's brains are wired, where the interconnections between two areas of sensory cortex are abnormally strong. Thus, when one area is activated (by perceiving a letter, for example), the activation spreads to the other area (for perceiving a colour). It's something that would develop very early on (probably in utero, and surely by soon after birth).
In adults, you might theoretically be able to induce permanent synaesthesia by repeated Tetanic stimulation of the two areas of cortex simultaneously. This may induce a strengthening of the connections between the two areas via Hebbian learning.
On the other hand, this might destroy your ability to perceive both letters and colour, or cause other brain damage. There would be no guarantee that the results would be of any use to you at all (remember that synaesthesics grow up experiencing the world this way). And that's assuming you could even identify the appropriate areas. Needless to say, no surgeon would do this.
Sorry, LSD is still your best bet. :)
In adults, you might theoretically be able to induce permanent synaesthesia by repeated Tetanic stimulation of the two areas of cortex simultaneously. This may induce a strengthening of the connections between the two areas via Hebbian learning.
On the other hand, this might destroy your ability to perceive both letters and colour, or cause other brain damage. There would be no guarantee that the results would be of any use to you at all (remember that synaesthesics grow up experiencing the world this way). And that's assuming you could even identify the appropriate areas. Needless to say, no surgeon would do this.
Sorry, LSD is still your best bet. :)
What I find massively fascinating about synesthesia is the high coappearance with creativity...
Synethesia is a very common (temporary) effect of psychedelic drugs. This means that most everyone has the ability to sense synethetically. It's just a matter of somehow triggering this experience in one's brain.
It's a pity that research on psychedelic drugs is so difficult to do legally in the US (where the overwhelming majority of research money is spent). Otherwise, it might have already been possible to develop drugs that target just the synesthetic experience without bringing on a full psychedelic trip (not to mention the many other benefits that scientific research in to psychedelics would very likely have had).
It's a pity that research on psychedelic drugs is so difficult to do legally in the US (where the overwhelming majority of research money is spent). Otherwise, it might have already been possible to develop drugs that target just the synesthetic experience without bringing on a full psychedelic trip (not to mention the many other benefits that scientific research in to psychedelics would very likely have had).
"Synaesthetic and psychedelic mean approximately the same thing." -Gene Youngblood in Expanded Cinema (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_cinema). Good book.
This may be true, when "synethetic" and "psychedelic" are used as specialist jargon for describing films or various effects in film. But it's not true in the general, colloquial sense of these terms, which refer to either a type of sensation or to a type of drug.
Psychedelic literally means "mind-manifesting", while the etymology for synethesia comes from "sense" and "together".
The word "psychedelic" was specifically coined as a way to describe the drugs that were previously called "hallucinogens" and "psychotomimetics", and it was an attempt to remove the inaccurate and negative connotations that those other words had.
Synethesia, on the other hand, refers to a specific type of sensation, and not to a drug.
Also, psychedelic drugs have many, many other effects apart from synethesia (which isn't present in every trip or for everyone taking psychedelic drugs, anyway).
So in the usual sense of these terms (not in the sense a film critic might use them), these two words have quite different meanings.
Psychedelic literally means "mind-manifesting", while the etymology for synethesia comes from "sense" and "together".
The word "psychedelic" was specifically coined as a way to describe the drugs that were previously called "hallucinogens" and "psychotomimetics", and it was an attempt to remove the inaccurate and negative connotations that those other words had.
Synethesia, on the other hand, refers to a specific type of sensation, and not to a drug.
Also, psychedelic drugs have many, many other effects apart from synethesia (which isn't present in every trip or for everyone taking psychedelic drugs, anyway).
So in the usual sense of these terms (not in the sense a film critic might use them), these two words have quite different meanings.