confessions of a synesthetic
in a recent discussion with my parents over an episode of oprah in which oprah's guest had learned how to speak to babies by learning to distinguish and correlate basic "baby sounds" to distinct and unmistakable meanings, the conversation drifted towards unique forms of memory (eidetic, photographic etc.), and reminded me that i myself am part of the 4% of the population with the neurological condition known as grapheme → color synesthesia.
what is grapheme → color synesthesia? well, in a nutshell, i involuntarily associate numbers and letters with colors. i.e. A is red, B is blue, 3 is green, etc. and on a related note, i also associate months with colors, and days of the week in both color and symbol. strange...who knew? in fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that i realized that not everyone did this (okay, well perhaps i knew the symbols were unique, but i certainly assumed everyone saw letters and numbers in color), and it wasn't until about a year ago that i first bothered to research the "condition" to find it had both a name and centuries of research behind it.
fortunately, there's nothing wrong, dangerous, or otherwise worrisome about being a synesethetic, in fact, it has been known to aid creativity and memorization (two skills i would say i invoke at an above-average level).
synesthesia can also materialize in other forms. many people, including famous musicians (from franz liszt to pharrell), see music in color, while others can go so far as to personify letters and numbers. in my research, i discovered another form that i also exhibit, albeit to a lesser extent: lexical → gustatory synesthesia, which involves the association of taste with words. for instance, when i say or think the word "lunch," i can taste it. i can't even describe the taste, because it's not really like any food that actually exists (to my knowledge)...it's just lunch.
so, now that i've made myself seem like a complete freak of nature, it's time for you too to ask yourself this all-important question: what does the letter X look, feel or taste like to you?
what is grapheme → color synesthesia? well, in a nutshell, i involuntarily associate numbers and letters with colors. i.e. A is red, B is blue, 3 is green, etc. and on a related note, i also associate months with colors, and days of the week in both color and symbol. strange...who knew? in fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that i realized that not everyone did this (okay, well perhaps i knew the symbols were unique, but i certainly assumed everyone saw letters and numbers in color), and it wasn't until about a year ago that i first bothered to research the "condition" to find it had both a name and centuries of research behind it.
fortunately, there's nothing wrong, dangerous, or otherwise worrisome about being a synesethetic, in fact, it has been known to aid creativity and memorization (two skills i would say i invoke at an above-average level).
synesthesia can also materialize in other forms. many people, including famous musicians (from franz liszt to pharrell), see music in color, while others can go so far as to personify letters and numbers. in my research, i discovered another form that i also exhibit, albeit to a lesser extent: lexical → gustatory synesthesia, which involves the association of taste with words. for instance, when i say or think the word "lunch," i can taste it. i can't even describe the taste, because it's not really like any food that actually exists (to my knowledge)...it's just lunch.
so, now that i've made myself seem like a complete freak of nature, it's time for you too to ask yourself this all-important question: what does the letter X look, feel or taste like to you?
posted by mark at 11:40 AM
1 Comments:
a couple of random notes:
*i think my synesthesia is conditional to mood. or more prone based on particular circumstances/ environments
*which leads me to think that perhaps, this is why it can trigger hunger or lunch
*naturally, it all comes back to food, doesn't it?
*X looks black/ white or grey - reminding me of tax forms, scantron sheets, and other blah and bland associations
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