Synesthesia

[tmaromine]

(I don't know if this exactly fits into the Medical Science forum, because it's not really about medicine, rather mind, but it's not philosophy or psychology or anything either... :hihi: )

 

Anywho, anyone (else) out there who seems to have synesthesia ?

 

I think I have it, but on a very low level... Like the Wiki articles somewhere says, I often 'notice' A's without thinking about it as red. Alex. Alpha. Argentina. Animal. The A, especially the first (or if it's capital, maybe) I just notice as read. Other letters or other colours, but it's weak. Sometimes letters are boring black... I would love it though if I had a 'higher level' of synesthesia, so that I could remember numerous numbers and patterns based on colours or tones or whatever.

 

Now (again according to Wiki), there's this left-right confusion. I think I have that slightly also. I rarely remember left vs right or west vs east without thinking L-R or WE.

[CraigD]

I think I have it, but on a very low level...

What lead you to conclude – or just suspect - you have synesthesia, Tim?

 

According to the wikipedia article, your kind of synesthesia can be objectively tested with high reliability with test such as one resembling color-blindness tests. Have you tried these tests? Though I’ve not researched them in detail, I get the impression that they allow you to pretty conclusively determines if you have synesthesia or not.

 

I’ve occasionally considered the possibility that I had some kinds of mild synesthesia, but after reading and reflecting on it, concluded that I didn’t truly meet the criteria. I’ve never had a rigorous test for any form of it.

 

One example of what I think is “false synesthesia” is reading piano sheet music, and having the printed notes “jump out” as guitar chords and tablature. Though it seems neurologically profound, I think it’s just a normal effect of reading music, and being accustom to transposing it for guitar. Similarly, sometimes when looking at printed music, I’ll actually faintly hear the music, as if someone is playing it some distance away, usually on a violin. This is, I think, a mild auditory hallucination, similar to the common one of hearing your name spoken in the absence of any voices.

 

I never hear a spoken or sung voice when reading text, either prose or lyrics, alone or on sheet music – the phenomenon only occurs for the instrumental part of a song.

[tmaromine]

Well, looking at the digital colour-blindness tests, and remembering to what I saw in a science book about 3 years ago, I'm not colour blind. But to my conclusion of how I might have it: sometimes A just looks red, 8 a dark blue, Y a yellow... A really 'sticks' though ; other letters seem to be more 'distant' and they're just 'black'... But, I remember I only experienced "red A" after I read of people who see letters in colours, and A often being red. So perhaps I never payed attention to it before, or I gave it to myself in some way... Don't really know, but I don't seem to be colour blind.

 

I don't have enough knowledge of guitar chords and any form of written music to relate, but when I listen to something without volume that I've already heard, I'll 'hear' it just because I know what would be sounding, even though there is no noise.

 

I think it'd be interesting to have your 'false synæsthesia' for music though. Heck, I'd like to be able to read mere notes !

 

If I'm listening to music, I'll often think I've heard someone say something, but that just must be a certain note bringing up some memory of voice or an audial hallucination.

 

Sometimes I can think in some person's accent/voice when I'm reading, but I usually can't remember its sound if I haven't heard it recently. After reading poems, I'll think my words in poemic form for a while, and if I just finished from an hour's or so reading, I'll think my words as like they're in some order and sentenced.

[CraigD]

According to the wikipedia article, your kind of synesthesia can be objectively tested with high reliability with test such as one resembling color-blindness tests.

Well, looking at the digital colour-blindness tests, and remembering to what I saw in a science book about 3 years ago, I'm not colour blind. But to my conclusion of how I might have it: sometimes A just looks red, 8 a dark blue, Y a yellow...

What I’m referring to as “resembling color-blindness tests” aren’t actual tests for color-blindness, but ones such as those designed by Ramachandran and Hubbard, an example of which is pictured here.

 

The idea, I gather, is to draw on a series of cards simple shapes - square, triangle, etc. – using one character against a jumble of others. If you’re really seeing the two characters as different colors – that is, experiencing grapheme-color synesthesia – you’ll be able to see the pattern in a fraction of a second, as you would if it were printed in a different color. If you’re not, you won’t be able to see the pattern after only a short glimpse of the card. Displaying these cards for the proper durations, you should be able to tell if a person does or doesn’t have G-C synesthesia.

 

This sounds like the sort of thing that can be had in kit form from a psych testing supply company. Since these supplies can be pricey and hard to find, even better would be if the test is available for free on the internet – a worthy searching project.

[tmaromine]

Looking at Ramachandran and Hubbard's test, it seems that perhaps I don't have it (even though I saw the red and green version, I couldn't really distinguish them in the black version ; maybe I need a test with digits that I see as colourful ?..)

 

I couldn't find anything on Google after a quick search. Nonetheless, somehow I still relate red with A, and any words that it starts with, but I guess it just might not be synæsthesia, rather something I do consciously. :rolleyes: