Wikipedia

Synesthesia

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For other uses, see Synesthesia (disambiguation).
This picture is used as a test to demonstrate that people may not attach sounds to shapes arbitrarily: A remote tribe calls one of these shapes Booba and the other Kiki. Decide which is which and then click the image to check your answer.

Synaesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia, synesthesia); from the Greek (syn-) “union,” and (aesthesis) “sensation,” is a neurological rarity in which two or more of the senses are interconnected, resulting in a more holistic experience. For example, music may be seen as colour or a forest may be heard as a poem. Synaethesia should not be mistaken for artistic inspiration; synaethestes are not inspired but actually perceieve reality on a fundamentally different level than non-synaestheses. Because synaethesia is rare, occuring in only 1 % of the population, many synaetheses don't realize that their experiences are abnormal. Genuine clinical synesthetic studies show:

  • Synesthesia is genetic but it is not hereditary. It is consistent throughout life and often sets the synesthetic child apart from non-synesthethic parents, by which the child will begin displaying vastly different thought processes as young as adolescence. A synesthete is born with the ability to perceive numerous concepts on alternative levels.
  • Synesthetes have an excellent memory for the triggers of synesthetic experience, such as music, literature and science. They are, on average, more intelligent than then general population, scoring high in IQ and cognition testing.
  • Approximately 20 percent of synethese suffer from a severe mental disorder such as bipolar disorder, major depression or schizophrenia. Synesthesia itself is not a disorder; why people with mental illness are more likely to experience synesthesia is unknown, but brain research as suggested that the developement of neurotransmitters has much to do with it.
  • Synesthetes are prone to hypersensitivity toward light, sound and smell (eg. they might feel violently overpowered by even a small amount of perfume). Normal amounts of stimulation are excessive because their sensory input is advanced.
  • Despite displaying more advanced cognitive skills than the general population, Synesthetes often have difficulty remembering numbers, such as home phone numbers and street addresses. This can be attributed to their unfamiliarity with concrete situations.
  • Synesthetes are essentially solitary individuals. This could be partially due towards hypersensitivty but many researchers have claimed that because their brains function on a fundamentally different plane, they prefer personal isolation to communicating with non-synesthetes.
  • Synesthetes excel in advanced trains of thought such as philosophy and writing, as well as in music. This can be largely attributed to the lack of boundaries and the faster electro-neurological connections within their brains.


People with synaesthetic experiences

Synaesthesia has influenced artists in many fields as well as other gifted individuals.

Synesthesia associations

See also

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