Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which stimulation of a certain sensation leads
to a simultaneous activation of another unrelated sensory pathway for example
some synesthetes see colors when they hear sounds while
others can taste distinct flavors when they hear unrelated words remarkably
this involves not only the five senses but also cognitive and mental
experiences such as pattern recognition spatial orientation or even emotions
some forms of synesthesia involve more than two senses or experiences at a time
in theory there can be as many types of synesthesia as there are possible
combinations of sensory or perceptual experiences but some forms are much more
common than others these include grapheme - color
synesthesia where individual letters and numbers are seen with a specific color
sound - color or chromesthesia where sounds produce colors and spatial sequence
synesthesia where elements of a sequence such as days in a week are assigned a
specific location in a 3d arrangement around the person it's not uncommon for
a person to experience more than one form once thought to be rare synesthesia
is now estimated to be very common the numbers are far from accurate however
perhaps because most synesthetes have their experiences since a very young age
and do not realize that anything is unusual until much later in life
at which point many tend to keep it a secret for fear of being different or
diagnosed with mental illness with today's better understanding of the
phenomenon synesthetes are more likely to come forward sharing their experience
despite being referred to as a neurological condition by some
neurologists synesthesia is not a disease it is not associated with
cognitive or mental disabilities in fact synesthetes generally perform better in
memory tests than an average person and tend to be more creative they have
built-in capabilities that are to their advantage
seeing colors when hearing musical notes can help achieve perfect pitch
automatically arranging items in space aids with memory and having numbers
color-coded can help quickly spot differences and patterns most synesthetes
perceive their experiences as a gift rather than a handicap many tend to have
inclination for creative artistic professions a true synesthetic
experience is automatic involuntary and consistent over time these experiences
are the only way a synesthete perceives the world a sound or a letter always
gives the same color every time without fail and if they hear a new sound they
never heard before or see a new character they never seen before a color
will be automatically assigned to it some drugs may produce synesthetic-like
effects but these are not real synesthetic experience because they do not
last genetic makeup seems to have a role in predisposition to synesthesia as it
tends to run in family but family members can have different forms of
synesthesia mechanism of synesthesia is still poorly understood but there is
evidence that the crosstalk between various sensory pathways accounts for
the experience for example with the help of brain imaging techniques the brain v4
region responsible for color recognition can be seen activated when a sound-
color synesthete is presented with auditory stimuli synesthetes also seem
to have more gray matter in the implicated brain areas as well as more
white matter connecting them there is a theory that we are all born
synesthetic with all the connections between senses but lose them together
with synesthetic ability as our brain matures whilst synesthetes retain it
this may explain why most people still have some degree of synesthesia as
adults let's see if you have it which of these shapes is named "Kiki" and which "Bouba"?