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Synesthesia

Snow Turtle

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Thanks all. :D

I made a presentation in my psychology class on this specific topic! I used some examples here, but kept it anonymous in case people want to be hidden away from the 6 students in my class. ^^
 

Bamboo

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^ I think this is an important note.. Synesthesia isn't, correct me if I'm wrong, a voluntary function of the brain.

Reading auras, looking for colors, or other things are functions of the brain, not dysfunctions of it. If you can "Work on it" it's probably not synesthesia.

This is a very important note to make.

Synesthesia is NOT elicited. It occurs involuntarily.

It is also "durable", which means that it doesn't change over time. A person will always (or nearly always) see the same color, or shape, or have the same impression of smell, etc to a specific stimulus.

A person may see a green, for instance, upon hearing a specific note of music, and years later have the same sense impression to that note.

It is also "non-specific", meaning a person may see green and red swirls, but not a landscape of a church, for instance.

That said, certain emotions, levels of attentiveness, and drugs (including alcohol) can effect the synesthetic experience.

Cytowic is the big name to know in synesthesia research if you want to know more, he has a few books out.


I have visual/kinesthetic -> sound synesthesia. Movements, flashing lights, or anything "phasic" (goes back and forth, on or off, round and round) gives me an impression of sound. I also hear similar noises in movement, depending on what point I focus on.
 

ayoitsStepho

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Its been brought up that its possible that I have synesthesia.
Though I don't want to say I do because I'll look foolish if I don't :tongue:.
If I have it, I think its not a HUGE dominant thing in me... eh, idk. I'm leery to it all. :blush:
But its possible that I have smell/emotion synesthesia. Where specific smells have a specific emotion. I know personally that certain tree's that I have in my yard are more prone to make me feel this loneliness. Its the specific smell of the bark I suppose. Which is weird because I never really thought of it before... I'm not sure I could name every smell and its emotion but I can usually sense what I'll be feeling once I smell it. :blush:
 

kyuuei

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There are hundreds of ways Synesthesia manifests itself in humans. The lecture I posted above talks about the brain all being interconnected to itself, pieces of it all on little nervous highways to each other. It's easy for something to crossed and mixed in the process.

How involuntary is this reaction you have, is probably my next question. For example, I'm hyper-sensitive to voices, and yet, this doesn't feel quite the same way as my involuntarily seeing colors when certain pitches/voices talk.
 

ayoitsStepho

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Well at times it feels a bit more unbearable. Because smells cause different emotions in myself, I've been known to get major panic attacks in public. I have to be weary some times to not allow myself to too deeply indulge in smells. I have to dismiss them really, so I don't get too overwhelmed (like you saw in vent). I think I'm only super sensitive to it when I allow myself to sit and indulge in the smells and not whats at hand.
 

matmos

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If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it still smell?
 

Siúil a Rúin

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I don't know if this would qualify as a mild form of it, but each major scale on the piano has seemed like a different color to me for as long as I can remember. I don't know if I could identify it with sound alone, but the pattern, sound, and idea of it as a whole has a strong correlation to different colors. I was tickled when I read about Amy Beach (an American composer) who had the same thing, only her colors were offset from mine by a fifth, I think. The correlation in my mind is quite strong even though I know it is completely outside of reason. I used to think there was a way to almost literally interpret anything visual into sound by finding out all the right correlations.

A - green
B - orange
C - yellow
D - red/pink
E - blue
F - purple
G - brown
 

BlueGray

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This topic is hard for me to get my mind around. I understand the logical reasoning but imagining myself seeing color relationships with other things, when i don't even remember the color of my shirt, is mind boggling.
 

ChocolateMoose123

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This is a very important note to make.

Synesthesia is NOT elicited. It occurs involuntarily.

It is also "durable", which means that it doesn't change over time. A person will always (or nearly always) see the same color, or shape, or have the same impression of smell, etc to a specific stimulus.

A person may see a green, for instance, upon hearing a specific note of music, and years later have the same sense impression to that note.

It is also "non-specific", meaning a person may see green and red swirls, but not a landscape of a church, for instance.

That said, certain emotions, levels of attentiveness, and drugs (including alcohol) can effect the synesthetic experience.

Cytowic is the big name to know in synesthesia research if you want to know more, he has a few books out.


I have visual/kinesthetic -> sound synesthesia. Movements, flashing lights, or anything "phasic" (goes back and forth, on or off, round and round) gives me an impression of sound. I also hear similar noises in movement, depending on what point I focus on.
Great post. Yes. Your "colors" should not change. It is involuntary and rarely disrupting to normal functioning. I think that's why I have to concentrate to think of how I "see" the colors - because it is so natural. It's like riding a bike and then having to explain each one of your movements. You have to actively think about it and it slows you down.
 

kyuuei

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This topic is hard for me to get my mind around. I understand the logical reasoning but imagining myself seeing color relationships with other things, when i don't even remember the color of my shirt, is mind boggling.

The "Kiki bouba" test is a really good way, as you can witness in the lecture I posted, to explain sorta how synesthesia works.

The idea is, this is an alien language. Which one says "kiki" and which one says "Bouba" to you?

112407_1846_TheBoubaKik1_7.png


Kiki is usually said to be the sharp, angular one by most people. The reality is, none of them should matter one way or another. The way it looks has nothing to do with the way something's said, persay (much like, you probably wouldn't have any idea what a Japanese character sounded like just from looking at it), but your mind hears "Kiki" and hears the very sharp, angular sounds of the word.. while "Bouba" is move fluid, and flowing.. So when you look at the characters, you associate the angular and waving ones to the noises even though there's no real reason to at all.

This is sort of how synesthesia works, or at least a Barney-sort of way of explaining it. The mind relates something to something else even though the two have nothing in common on their own.

Great post. Yes. Your "colors" should not change. It is involuntary and rarely disrupting to normal functioning. I think that's why I have to concentrate to think of how I "see" the colors - because it is so natural. It's like riding a bike and then having to explain each one of your movements. You have to actively think about it and it slows you down.

Indeed, like I mentioned in this thread earlier, I didn't even know there was a name for what I had until seeing the OP. It seemed natural to me, even though other people gave me some indicators it was not, and trying to place whatever I saw into words seemed impossible. It's one of those things that's hard to google. :laugh:
 
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