- I think I know what Synesthesia is.
- It's sort of like what happens when you're tripping.
("Future Trap" by DarkstarMuzic)
- Different parts of your brain
control the sensation of the perception of vision,
or of hearing, or of smell, or of taste,
and a lot of those areas in the brain are neighbors.
My name is Nadia Ortelt
and I'm a DIY Neuroscientist.
In some people the connection
between those neighboring areas
is much stronger than in other people,
and those people have Synesthesia.
They can see colors associated with numbers,
or shapes, or letters, or words.
- I'm Jordan.
- I'm Justin.
- And we both have Synesthesia,
and we're dating.
Well, I see every letter has a color,
and every number has a color.
- So, I had it my whole life
and I thought it was totally normal
to associate colors
and numbers and letters in my head.
- All my numbers are,
they kind of correspond with the rainbow.
I have like ideas about,
like the personality of numbers.
"Seven" is kind of a jerk.
"Three" is like a really nice guy,
it's a good number.
- [Nadia] People with Synesthesia
are usually much better at memorizing things
because they always have two associations
with every idea, or object, or thing.
- I remember distinctly like when I was a little kid
remembering my phone number,
my first phone number, with colors.
Green, green, gold, red, red, gold, gold.
- My name's actually really ugly,
I don't like the way it looks.
("Future Trap" by DarkstarMuzic)
- [Nadia] Synesthesia is actually
a really common condition,
but also it's how our brains work most of the time.
So you can do this really simple experiment
at home to see what Synesthesia actually looks like.
Cut out a bunch of shapes,
some like this, that are kind of pointy and spiky,
and some like this, which are round and a bit softer.
Put all these shapes in front of your friend
and ask him to associate the two of them
with one of two categories,
one which is a nonsense word "kiki",
and the other which is a nonsense word "bouba".
- Who are "kiki" and "bouba"?
- They're like Miyasaki characters.
- [Nadia] "kiki" kind of sounds like spiky and sharp,
and "bouba" kind of sounds round and soft.
And you'll find that actually everybody associates
these types of shapes with "kiki"
and these types of shapes with "bouba".
- Everyone feels this way?
- That's creepy.
- No, that's not how it works,
is that how it works?
- I have no control over my mind.
- Oh! That looks exactly like what I did.
I guess everyone has
a little bit of Synesthesia in them.
Wow!
("Future Trap" by DarkstarMuzic)