No, I'm not saying that our resident synesthete is a cyborg. According to this New Scientist article, synesthesia can be attributed to brain plasticity more than any kind of genetic predisposition toward the condition.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
All growing up I associated colors with letters and numbers, even days of the week and months of the year. But I don't so much anymore. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I still do, but probably not as strongly as I did when I was younger. What has intensified for me as I've gotten older, though, has been the association between scent and pitch, and scent and color. Pain is the same way.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
The whole thing about experiencing scents with other stimuli sounds so cool. I have never experienced anything like that--the idea kinda appeals to my imagination.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Yeah, I've always liked it. It seems...I don't know, richer, I guess, than experiencing it without.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I would also love to be one of those females that can see an extra color. I forget what that condition is called though.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
Meanwhile, I would be happy just to be able to see color like a normal human.
[ August 23, 2004, 12:36 PM: Message edited by: saxon75 ]
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Those women are called tetrachromates because they can pick up 4 different colors, while most of us can only pick up 3. Then there are those that can only pick up 2.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I've never heard of that! Cool! I love learning new stuff!
::heads off to google::
Posted by delicate flower (Member # 6260) on :
I’ve always associated letters/numbers/days/months with colors. I’ve never really thought much about it, though. I never know it was a “condition.” I read the article, but I have to wonder: what does it mean? Is it just a little quirk as I always thought, or is it symptomatic of something else? Thinking about it now, I guess I’ve always unconsciously linked it to being slightly dyslexic when I was young. (I’ve mostly grown out of that, although I do sometimes stumble when dealing with numbers or reading aloud.) I probably make this connection because I was learning my number, letters, etc when my teachers noticed the dyslexia, so it probably has nothing to do with it.
I have a ton of work on my desk and really don’t have time to research this. Can someone just reassure me that this is not a sign of some other problem I’ve never been aware of? I have to admit that thinking about this is getting me a little freaked out. I will definitely look up synesthesia when I have more time, but for now, please put my mind at ease.
I also mentally assign gender to letters/numbers/days/months. Is that part of synesthesia, or just me being weird? I know other people do this too, that’s why George Eastman named his company Kodak (he thought “K” was masculine, I’ve always thought it was feminine.) But, George Eastman was a strange man himself, I’m not sure I like that comparison.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I always assumed the color association (at least for me) was due to the fact that these things were taught to me as a young child using bright colors to hold my interest. Big, friendly, colorful letters of the alphabet and so forth. I remember being taught each letter was a specific character. All the consonants were male and the vowels female. I have thought of it that way ever since.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
It's OK, beverly, being slightly red-green deficient doesn't really impact my life much. Actually, the funny thing is that I didn't even know I was colorblind until I was like 15 or 16. My family took a trip up to San Francisco and at the Exploratorium they had some of those Ishihara tests in an exhibit about vision. I tried them out just from curiosity and to my surprise failed the red-green one.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I've heard that happens a lot, where the individual doesn't realize they are colorblind. I don't know much about it. I am always curious about the differences in others perceptions. You know, like what if someone else's blue is my red?
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
I wonder that exact same thing, Bev. And there'd really never be any way of knowing, would there?
I've read that Synesthesia can be associated with eidetic memory. This was the case in the most famous case of eidetic memory, and for the life of me I can't remember the psychologist's name who published the study on the Russian guy who he called "Mr. S." It was studying this patient that led to the first recognitions of synesthesia.
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
A friend of mine from high school went on to teach the blind. I asked her one time how she could teach colors to someone who can't see. I think she said she tried to describe them in terms of the emotions they typically cause. Such as red is associated with passion, anger, etc., blue is associated with calming.
Posted by Phanto (Member # 5897) on :
There is one song that always makes me think blue and it feels blue, too. Porcelin by Moby. Sometimes pain makes me feel a bright red.
Nothing more than that, though.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I think my music related synesthesia and associating things with scents has gotten stronger. Must be isolation in a way... hmmm
Like, for example, kids that have unusual art or math skills, why do they lose them when they become more outgoing?
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
quote: Like, for example, kids that have unusual art or math skills, why do they lose them when they become more outgoing?
This is just my opinion, but I think they let go of them because they are not "cool". Or being social takes the place of really pursuing those gifts. But for whatever reason, intelligence and skills are not highly valued by young peers. They are more likely to cause jealousy and mocking.
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