What does it feel like to have synesthesia?

Some synesthetes hear, smell, taste or feel pain in color. Others taste shapes, and still others perceive written digits, letters and words in color.

What is it like to live with synesthesia?

People with synesthesia have elevated memory; they have elevated spatial sense. Then there are also some real deficits. They have difficulty with arithmetic and with direction findings, so they get lost. Especially in cities that are set up on a grid.

What does a person with synesthesia see?

The mental condition called “synesthesia” sounds like a bong-hitting undergrad's dream come true: crossed sensory wires in the brain can make a person involuntarily — and literally — hear sounds from images, see colors from music, even experience taste sensations when certain words are spoken (although that is rare).

What triggers synesthesia?

The condition occurs from increased communication between sensory regions and is involuntary, automatic, and stable over time. While synesthesia can occur in response to drugs, sensory deprivation, or brain damage, research has largely focused on heritable variants comprising roughly 4% of the general population.

What is the rarest form of synesthesia?

1. Lexical-gustatory synesthesia. One of the rarest types of synesthesia, in which people have associations between words and tastes. Experienced by less than 0.2 percent of the population, people with this may find conversations cause a flow of tastes across their tongue.

What's It Like To Hear Colors? - A VR 360° Synesthesia Experience

Is synesthesia linked to high IQ?

The synesthetes showed increased intelligence as compared with matched non-synesthetes. This was a general effect rather than bound to a specific cognitive domain or to a specific (synesthesia-type to stimulus-material) relationship.

Are there any benefits to having synesthesia?

People with synesthesia were found to have a general memory boost across music, word, and color stimuli (Figure 1). The researchers found that people had better memories when it related to their type of synesthesia. For example, on the vocab tests, the people who could see letters as certain colors had a better memory.

Is synesthesia a gift?

Synesthesia is a condition where one sense co-activates other senses. Okay, “condition” sounds clinical. It is instead a gift, and it has nothing to do with a disease or a mental disorder.

Is synesthesia a disability?

No, synesthesia is not a disease. In fact, several researchers have shown that synesthetes can perform better on certain tests of memory and intelligence. Synesthetes as a group are not mentally ill. They test negative on scales that check for schizophrenia, psychosis, delusions, and other disorders.

Are synesthetes geniuses?

For centuries, synesthesia was thought to be a mark of madness or genius. That's overblown. But an above-average number of artists, writers, and musicians report having these experiences.

Can you self diagnose synesthesia?

Do You Have Synesthesia? There's no clinical diagnosis for synesthesia, but it's possible to take tests such as “The Synesthesia Battery” that gauge the extent to which one makes associations between senses. To truly have synesthesia, the associations have to be consistent.

Do synesthetes actually see colors?

Most synesthetes see characters just as others do (in whichever color actually displayed) but may simultaneously perceive colors as associated with or evoked by each one.

Do all synesthetes see the same colors?

No. One synesthete might see 5 as red, another might see that number as green. But the associations are not random either. There's a higher chance that 5 will be red than it will be, say, blue or yellow.

Do Empaths have synesthesia?

Many synesthetes are empaths (although not all empaths are synesthetes). Empaths are highly sensitive people who absorb the stresses and emotions of others into their bodies. Coupling mirror-touch synesthesia with the extreme empathy that empaths have can be frustrating for those that experience it.

Is synesthesia annoying?

It can be an annoyance. Children say it can make reading tricky when they see colors that other people don't. If you have taste-related synesthesia, it can be startling when a bad taste comes on suddenly. But most synesthetes see their condition as a sixth sense, not a drawback.

What is synesthesia smell?

Russell: In olfactory-visual synesthesia, when the synesthete smells an odor, they perceive it as inherently colored. So, for one synesthete, caramel was a kind of purply color with blue and brown blobs, while for another, caramel was a blue pentagram with yellow dots in the corners.

Does synesthesia affect memory?

Synesthesia and Memory

Studies have shown that synesthesia is linked to the enhancement of several types of memory, specifically more detailed content of autobiographical memories, especially from childhood. Other synesthetes are able to learn new languages, or lyrics or specific details very easily.

Does having synesthesia make you Neurodivergent?

Relevance: Both autism and synaesthesia are examples of neurodiversity, which illustrates how our genes may change our brain structure and function and consequently our experience.

Is synesthesia overwhelming?

Synesthesia may extend to complex interactions in the brain engaging the five senses and may lead to overwhelming multidimensional experiences evoking fascinating experiences at certain times and painful sensations in other instances.

Is synesthesia a form of autism?

At first glance, synesthesia and autism are two completely unrelated things: synesthesia is a blending of the senses, while autism is characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, and nonverbal communication.

Is synesthesia a condition of autism?

Although not specific to autism, synaesthesia seems to be quite common among autistic individuals. Quite common in autistic pople is the form of synaesthesia that produces tactile sensations without the individual being physically touched, for example, looking at something can bring a tactile experience.

Is synesthesia linked to anxiety?

Children with synaesthesia showed evidence suggesting significantly higher rates of Anxiety Disorder, and also displayed a type of mood-moderation in demonstrating fewer extremes of emotion (i.e., significantly fewer negative feelings such as fear, but also significantly fewer positive feelings such as joy).