(classical orchestral music)
- Hey everybody, Brain Stuff.
Have you ever heard a color, or smelled a sound?
If so don't worry, you are not alone.
Instead you are part of a group I consider super powered.
You have synesthesia.
Or you've done some pretty heavy drugs,
maybe that's a different episode.
Anyway, when people with synesthesia experience input
from one sense, you know (mumbling),
it results in the experience of a other sense.
So if you are synesthe like Author Vladimir Nabokov,
you would associate letters with colors.
That's called grapheme-color synesthesia.
This grapheme-color stuff is the most common type,
but synesthesia can occur between
just about any combination of senses or cognitive pathways,
if we're using the fancy term.
And not everyone will experience the same type
of synesthesia the same way.
So while that soft ahh sound might always
seem fire-engine red to one synesthe,
it might be cobalt blue for others.
Some people with this condition see music.
(xylophone music)
They see music, I mean, that sounds kind of beautiful
when you think about it, right?
And there are less common types like, lexical-gustatory.
People with this condition taste certain flavors,
dishes, or entire meals based
on a picture, or a word, or a sound.
Smells could have colors and shapes too, the list goes on.
This is all fascinating but, how do people get it?
How do people get synesthesia?
Researchers are still working on that one but, they believe
the condition tends to be inherited somewhat.
Or genetic, about 40% of synesthetes
have a close relative with synesthesia.
And most synesthetes recall having the condition
for as long as they can remember.
It might sound like people have made mnemonic connections
with sounds, and colors, and so on,
but research shows this is a genuine sensory phenomenon,
rather than some kind of memory exercise.
Let's do an example.
So for example, if we drew the number five,
all over a piece of paper,
and we scattered it with a couple of twos,
and these twos sort of formed a triangle.
Most people would have a hard time seeing those twos,
they's have to look closely to search for those twos,
and then slowly construct a shape.
However, a grapheme-color synesthet
can see this triangle almost immediately.
Researchers think that synesthesia,
is a kind of cross wiring in the brain.
In grapheme-color synesthetes,
seeing a number stimulates your grapheme region,
and the area of your visual cortex
that responds to color stimuli.
Even cooler is that there might be
actual anatomical differences in the brains of synesthetes.
Like a increased white-matter and grey-matter in the brain.
There is however, one bit of sad news
for all the non-synesthetes out there.
People can't just catch synesthesia.
But hey, it's not like all synesthetes have a great time.
It could be uncomfortable seeing
a number in the wrong color.
And one lexical-gustatory synesthetesate,
who shall remain anonymous,
said that if a certain name doesn't taste right to him,
he has a hard time liking the person it's attached to.
Kevin.
And it's time to talk about drugs.
Don't act like you didn't know this was coming.
Hallucinogens might be one way that synesthesia
can be manufactured, for lack of a better word.
Several drugs can produce vivid synesthesia
in non-synesthetes.
Which might be a key to understanding the condition.
One researcher has posited that in non-synesthetes,
information in a multi-sensory area travels back easily
to its single sense area.
But in synesthetes again this gets mixed up along the way,
the crossed wires thing.
Hallucinogens, it turns out may temporarily
alter the users neurochemistry.
And confuse these existing connections.
I mean, lets face it, it might be pretty amazing
to go to a concert if you
have visually associated synesthesia.
Thank you for watching.
Have you had this experience? Let us know in the comments.
Toss a like my way. Subscribe.
And if you'd like to learn more Brain Stuff,
check with us every week and visit our website,
howstuffworks.com