Synesthesia: seeing sounds, hearing colors and tasting objects

Imagine that you pet a cat and, meanwhile, you perceive the taste of candy in your mouth. Or that you listen to a Beethoven symphony and you start to see everything blue. Or well, it’s not that you imagine it: it really tastes like candy and you’re seeing the color blue. That is the surprising world of those who have what we know as synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a combination of the senses. It consists of experiencing sensations coming from different senses at the same time in a single perceptive act. For example: synesthetes can see sounds, touch a soft surface and feel a sweet taste, or smell a color.

It is not a mere association or that “it seems” to them to see, hear or taste something: it is a real perception. Even when a person loses one of the senses, synesthesia can continue to occur. A person who hears colors, for example, can continue to see them even if they are completely blind..

Synesthesia is not voluntary, but involuntary

All these perceptions are involuntary, just as when we look at a white wall, we continue to see it white whether we like it or not.. It is something totally spontaneous, that cannot be controlled, and that has fascinated both scientists and artists for years.

As for art, this amalgamation of the senses has mixed the palettes of painters, the sonnets of poets and the staves of musicians. For example, the impressionist painter Kandinsky saw colors when listening to music and painted symphonies, or the symbolist poet Rimbaud wrote poetry with correspondence between vowels and colors.. This, by the way, is the most common type of synesthesia: associating letters or numbers with a specific color.

Known types of synesthesia

There are as many types of synesthesia as there are combinations of senses. However, the best known are the following:

Lexico-gustatory: The pronunciation of a word induces an involuntary sensation of taste in the mouth.​Grapheme-color: one of the most common forms of synesthesia. This is the direct association of any sign, letter or number with a specific color.Cromeesthesia: The person visualizes different colors, according to some characteristics of the music, such as its timbre or frequency.Personification: visual symbols, such as letters or numbers, are given a specific personality.Emotional: association between color and face processing. Some of these people claim to be able to see the aura of others.Mirror touch: Tactile sensations are experienced when another person receives them, or when the other person touches a surface.Space time: a connection is experienced between parameters of time and space, as if they were physical entities.Touch-emotion: a tactile perception awakens emotions. For example, certain textures provoke strong happy reactions.Auditory-tactile: Somatic sensations are perceived when listening to sounds.Number-shape: You see shapes when thinking about numbers, but these have nothing to do with their spelling.Space: This synesthesia allows us to see numbers as points in space, with depth vision.Linguistic ordinal personification: Numbers or sequences are associated with personalities or genders.Ideaesthesia: This is an acquired form of synesthesia in which semantic meanings are associated with perception-like experiences.

Causes of synesthesia

For those who experience this phenomenon, it can be said that, literally, “their wires get crossed.” According to scientific studies, synesthesia originates when there is crossed activity between the parts of the brain that are responsible for processing the senses.

This condition can be genetic, occur during fetal development, or occur as a result of drug use. such as LSD, mushrooms or other psychedelic substances. It also occurs in autistic people, schizophrenics and people who suffer from some type of epilepsy. During depression, synesthetes experience these sensations with greater intensity.

We were all synesthetes

Researcher Daphne Maurer published a very interesting work on synesthesia in neonates. In her 2005 publication she recounts how Babies under 4 months have a synesthetic brain, since the different sensory areas have not yet specialized in their corresponding stimulus.

However, as brain development continues, the well-known neuronal pruning occurs and the senses “separate.” This explains birth synesthesia, as it would be produced by insufficient synaptic pruning in these areas.

Its confusion with other diseases

It is estimated that one in every two thousand people has this condition acutely.and one in every twenty mildly, but precise data have not yet been found for a simple reason: those who experience it do not realize it, even for years, because for them that is their way of perceiving the environment and it is, up to who share their perceptions, who realize that they live it differently.

However, sometimes this phenomenon can be confused with other diseases. Schizophrenia, for example, can be one of the rushed diagnoses for something that is completely normal for some people. Their way of perceiving, feeling, smelling and seeing is different, since their senses are not associated in the way we understand them, but rather they intersect with each other..

However, we must be clear that synesthesia is not a disease, nor a disorder, it is just a peculiar way of tasting the world. Some studies indicate that it even brings benefits in terms of creativity or memory, so, if you have it, savor the sounds, enjoy the way that aroma looks and caress the colors around you with your hand.

And you? Do you have any type of synesthesia or have you never thought about whether you had it?

You might be interested…