Not everyone experiences synesthesia, but it's a neurological condition that those who have it can't ignore. By the end of this article, you'll understand why hearing colors and seeing sounds can be real for some people and what causes it.
synesthesia
When we talk about synesthesia, we are referring to a neurological condition in which sensory or cognitive stimulation leads to automatic and involuntary experiences in the person, like a second sensory or cognitive pathway. One pathway, for example, hearing, automatically activates a second pathway, for example, sight.
This means that when one sense is activated, another, unrelated sense is activated simultaneously. This can cause a person to perceive color patterns while listening to music. Synesthesia can involve any combination of senses, although not all have been studied.
The most common synesthesia is grapheme color synesthesia, where letters and numbers are associated with colors. Synesthetic people can hear smells or see sounds, taste words, even touch what they see. Approximately 5% of the world's population has some type or subtype of synesthesia.
Can you listen to this video on mute?
You might be surprised to discover that you, too, can hear the sound in this completely silent video. Synesthesia isn't just for people who associate sounds with images, tastes with words, and so on. Some people can hear sounds in videos even when the video isn't playing any sound. Does this happen to you too?
Psychologist Chris Fassnidge calls this phenomenon "visually evoked auditory response." While not technically synesthesia, Fassnidge believes it's a new form that warrants further study. Some people describe it as a buzzing in their head; for others, it's more like white noise. Still others say it varies depending on what they're looking at. This condition affects 30% of the population, and many people are unaware that they associate faint sounds in their minds with images.
Some people don't realize it happens to them frequently and aren't aware of the mental sound until they're completely isolated. To find out if you can truly hear the sound in this video in silence, you'll need to watch it in a quiet place without interruptions… only then will you notice. If you're in a noisy or distracting environment, you won't be able to appreciate whether you actually have the ability to hear the video silently.
Types and causes of synesthesia
Most people with this type of condition have at least two types of synesthesia. The most common is the one we mentioned above, the grapheme color. But there are also other types of synesthesia that are very common and that are worth naming to differentiate:
- Smell aromas when listening to certain sounds
- See music with patterns in the air
- savor words
- Feel textures when you feel emotions
- Feeling that time has physical characteristics
- See sign language as colors
- See abstract concepts
Although the causes are unknown, there are several theories on the table:
- Overabundance of neuronal connections.
- It occurs when the single-sense areas of the brain feed back to multisensory areas and the information is confused.
- We all have these connections but we don't use them.
- You have stronger mental associations.
- Children bilingual from an early age are more likely to have synesthesia.
How is it diagnosed
Although there is no single, definitive way to diagnose synesthesia because much remains to be learned about this condition, several factors must be considered in order to make a diagnosis. Guidelines have been developed by a leading synesthesia researcher, Dr. Richard Cytowic. These guidelines are as follows:
- They involuntarily experience perceptions
- Project sensations outside the mind, such as seeing colors in the air when hearing sounds
- They have an exactly the same perception every time the same stimulus occurs
- They have a generic perception, such as seeing a shape in response to a certain smell, but not seeing anything more complex
- They remember secondary synesthetic perception better than primary perception
- They have emotional reactions such as pleasant feelings linked to perceptions.
Pros and cons
Synesthetes often experience conflict because of this condition. Some see it as a gift, while others see it as a curse. For example, when a synesthete sees vague words in the wrong color, it can be strange, or when certain names leave a bad taste in their mouth, it can also be unpleasant. Others feel they have experienced sensory overload or that they were ashamed as children when they described what was happening to them, but no one understood. And many tried to hide it to avoid criticism or ridicule, without understanding whether what they were experiencing was normal or not.
On the other hand, the vast majority of synesthetes feel that their abilities are a gift and wouldn't want to lose them for anything in the world. They love knowing that five is yellow, for example, or that the word "moon" tastes like candy. They also feel that it's easier to memorize concepts because of the extra information they receive in their brains , information that other people can't even imagine.
In 2005, Daniel Tammet set the European record for memorizing pi by reciting 22.514 digits in five hours. He attributed the feat to his ability to see numbers in terms of color, texture, and sound. There is also evidence that synesthesia can enhance creativity. A 2004 study at the University of California had a group of students take the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. The synesthetes who took the test scored more than twice as high in all categories.
As if that were not enough, synesthetic people can have unique job opportunities. Some car manufacturers hire synesthetes to help their designers create cars that are more pleasing to users. There are synesthetes known as; Vincent Van Gogh or Marilyn Monroe.