Tuesday is What Color? Looking into Synesthesia

How does synesthesia, a neurological condition that mixes two or more senses, occur? Synesthetes can taste the number nine or give each day of the week a specific color. We may all have a small amount of synesthesia, according to Richard E. Cytowic, who also researched this topic about the intriguing world of intertwined senses.

Imagine a world where letters and numbers appear to be coloured even if they are printed in black, where sounds or music cause a flurry of animated, colorful patterns to appear, and where words and names give your mouth strange flavors. While Derek tastes like earwax, jail tastes like cold, hard bacon. 4% of people experience synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon that couples two or more senses. How does synesthesia, a neurological condition where two or more senses are combined, work?

In addition to hearing my voice, a synesthete might also be able to see it, taste it, or feel it physically. Synesthesia means linked sensation and has the same root as anesthesia, which is no sensation. A coloured hearing type increases your likelihood of getting a second, third, or fourth type by 50%. One in 90 of us perceives graphemes—the letters, numbers, and punctuation marks that make up written language—as having a vibrant color.

Some even have a personality or gender. Gayle views 3 as sporty and active, but 9 sees a pretentious, snobbish female. Phonemes, or language's sound units, on the other hand, arouse synesthetic appetites. James thinks that words with the -age ending, such as message and college, taste like sausage. Because there is nothing wrong with synesthesia, it is a trait, similar to having blue eyes. In actuality, the additional hooks give synesthetes better memories.

A female may come across someone she met years ago, for instance. "Let's see, her name was Green. Debra, Darby, Dorothy, and Denise are green. Yes! Denise is her name. Pairings that are set up in childhood are permanent. Synesthetes must be exposed to cultural artifacts like calendars, food names, and alphabets in order to overcome their innate biological tendency for brain neurons to hyperconnect. It's incredible how perception may vary with just one nucleotide change in one's DNA sequence.

Synesthesia offers a mechanism to comprehend subjective distinctions, or how two people can perceive the same thing in different ways. Consider Sean, who favors foods with a blue flavor, such milk, oranges, and spinach. The gene intensifies the connections that already exist between the taste region in his frontal lobe and the color region farther back. The gene might, however, have functioned in non-sensory regions in someone else.

By perceiving the similarities in differences, which is the concept of metaphor, you would then be able to connect seemingly unrelated objects. It should come as no surprise that artists who are skilled at creating analogies, such as novelist Vladimir Nabokov, painter David Hockney, composer Billy Joel, and singer Lady Gaga, are more likely to experience synesthesia. Why then do those of us who are not synesthetes comprehend metaphors like "sharp cheese" or "sweet person"? Due to the intimate correlation between sight, sound, and movement, even amateur ventriloquists may persuade us that the dummy is speaking.

Similar to music, films can make us believe that the sound is coming from the actors' lips rather than the speakers in the room. We are all synesthetes on the inside and are therefore oblivious to the constant connections of our perceptions. Brain crosstalk is the norm, not the exception. And to me, that sounds like a great offer or an amazing deal!