What is synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a blending of the senses. While it is not uncommon sensory perceptions have mutual influence, both on synesthesia is so strong that, for example colors are tasted or seen sounds. This property of the brains arrives at relatively few people. These take multiple types of impulses at the same time where, even if it, in fact, in general, be generated by other senses.
Letter color synesthesia
A particular form is that in which one of synesthesia when reading letters or numbers also experiences colors. The letter E or call the number 7 for example the color red or green. The experience is not all synesthetes alike: some see the color directly projected onto the letter. Others associate the letter only indirectly with color; for example, they see a plain black letters, but experienced (slightly later in time) the color red. A statement from the direct color experience is that the brain region where the form of letters (or numbers) is processed has too many connections with nearby brain area where color is processed. If the letter area is activated, thereby almost immediately the color area co-activated. One possible cause is that when children grow up too many connections between regions in the brains intact. Usually dies in early childhood quite a few useless links off but synesthetes who see the color actually, those compounds could also survive in later life. A second theory is that an area 'higher up' in the brains is integrated into the superior parietal lobule where visual information, the information in a wrong way feedback to the color area, which makes it especially is activated. Possibly, this theory mainly applies to the second group of synesthetes, they indirectly experience that color.
Origin and manifestations
Between areas of the brain that are specialized in various types of observation exist many compounds. These compounds are present at birth at all, but are normally partially severed during development. In a synestheet remain some compounds intact, making observations lead through a sense of simultaneous observation of properties belonging to other senses. So then someone tastes something example when he hears a piece of music, or hear colors with music, associating letters, numbers or words with colors. Also, LSD tests showed that there actually is a connection between, say, sound and color. Research shows that only 1 in 2,000 people appears to have synesthesia. It sometimes happens in families. According to some geneticists, it is a property in which several genes are involved.
According to the Canadian psychologist Daphne Mauer is the conclusion of her research with babies that everyone has its own degree of synesthesia because of the intense synaptogenesis which the first months and years in the brains takes place. By pruningproces eliminate most of these compounds are released soon. A small percentage, however, remain under the influence of their genes and these people maintain their high sensitivity. The synesthesia ability to create possible the unexpected observation capacities.
Spread over the population
It was estimated that it occurs earlier at 1 in 2000, or even 1 in 5000 people, in one form or another. But according to the latest estimates, have about 5% of people one-or-other 'form' of synesthesia. Makes synaesthesia often part of the picture thinking.
Main features of synaesthesia
Synesthesias are:
- individually different;
- for the person "has always been", that is as long as anyone can remember;
- involuntarily, so act without a volition of the person concerned;
- experience without the influence of alcohol, drugs or medication;
- not tied to a specific situation, memory or any impression.
Synesthesia and visual thinking
A picture thinker may use a combination of hearing and vision to seek out observations to confirm certain ideas. People with this hyper-sensory attitude "often take more true than people without this 'anomaly'. The interaction of the clear perception and its efficient processing, is often the basis for image thinkers. However, this mode of perception is completely independent of synesthesia. The big difference is that synesthesia is by definition a stimulus in one modality, an involuntary response provides another modality. This is not the case when image thinking.
Learned synesthesia
It is possible to train the memory in synesthesia. An example is memory athletes, people who have developed an exceptionally similar memory. The basis for this is to make visual connections in memorizing non-visual information.
An example of artificial synesthesia is repeatedly think of a color to a color concept which has no connection with. After some time it will think of the color, the concept can also pick up, and vice versa. An intuitive example from everyday life is a red light in traffic. It's not so much that the color reason to stop, but the connections made here to enter it.