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See Sounds, Hear Colors

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How does violin music smell? What does the reflection of trees in a lake sound like? What color is Thursday? To most people, these questions might seem completely nonsensical, but to people with synesthesia they sound perfectly reasonable. Synesthesia is a perceptual condition in which there is an involuntary blending of one or more of the senses. The most common form is chromagraphemia, the associating of colors with numbers and letters -- but the sense--mingling can get a lot weirder. A synesthete might see moving blobs of color when tasting foods, or taste specific flavors upon hearing certain words.

Once dismissed as a product of an overly active imagination, artistic fancy, drug use or even just craziness, synesthesia is finally being recognized as having a biological basis. PhD candidate Bryan Alvarez will show us his research on this condition and also share his life as a person living with this condition.
DrFrankenSteiner

33 responses // See Sounds, Hear Colors

  • paste the address for anything from the web
    this is fascinating subject-- for more on synesthesia see
    saskia
    1 response to this
  • another beautiful mind...
    jvanauken
  • very interesting, I had never heard of this before...
    allgoode21
  • I've never heard of this title before, but I honestly thought, and still think, that everyone has mental connections like these. Maybe not everyone physically sees colors when they read or smell certain smells on certain days, so they're not as obvious, but I know I definatly have a mental, color image of the yearly calendar and images/feelings that I associate with certain numbers. You just don't think about them.
    squidteeth
  • L.S.Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!

    The mind is incredible...
    Wessagusset_Oracle
  • nice
    peter_doerrie
  • http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/369439.The_Memory_Ar...
    Excellent. I've always been fascinated by synaesthesia. Check out this really interesting novel about memory and synaesthesia:
    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/369439.The_Memory_Ar...
    steev
  • This is really interesting. A nicely put together documentary on a fascinating topic.
    TheWogans
  • http://current.com/items/88870985_synesthesia
    here's another pod on synaesthesia, and an interesting thread of comments where people are sharing experiences.
    regina
  • Thank you for making this pod - it's what made me discover I have spatial form synesthesia like the girls who describe how they see the calendar :)
    julietp
  • Excellent pod. I never realized that my acute sense of smell for times of day and weather had to do with synesthesia. I only realized I was experiencing something different when I took someone on my regular morning commute and tried to point out and explain the different smells I was sensing. I guess sunny mornings in Cambridge don't smell like cream soda for other people. Who'd have thought...
    renbyrd
  • I see a future Research Breakthrough coming here
    Blackfoot777
  • that kind of cool i didnt know there was a name for what i have
    imatec
  • Two things come to mind: hallucinogenic experiences that blend senses, and the ancient language of Sanskrit.

    Perhaps the temporary brain re-wiring under the influence of hallucinogens is similar to the permanent wiring of synethetes.

    Also, the legend of how the Sanskrit language was created is that seers would go into a meditative trance and then contemplate a certain object or idea. They would collectively reach consensus on what that idea or object sounded like, and this became the name for it. There is supposed perfect psychological coherence between somethings name and its sound.
    rahulbrown
    2 responses to this
  • I like Rahulbrown's insights. Deep meditative states (trance is a lovely word, isn't it) do seem synesthetic. But it's the idea of built-in worldview differences casually among us which induces thought-bliss...normally, we know this only in art, literature, comedy, the occasional social commentator, or perhaps in our own canted brains.
    24French
  • I've heard about this in a medical class. It sounds very interesting, and my teacher who was a licensed nurse, actually helped a patient with the condition.

    She said while it seemed like an extraordinary gift, th patient saw it as the worst burden he's ever had to deal with. :/
    Xion
  • this is sooo interesting! I've had this since I was little, seeing the lines where I swept the floor and where I didnt, seeing math problems in lego-like shapes. Try explaining that to someone. Great pod!
    iOw
    • iOw
    • 2 months ago
  • This reminds me of the guy that I saw on a show that knows numbers really well and he sees shapes that represent numbers. But he's autistic (a bit) being an idiot savante and such.

    But this is interesting. People are just fascinating and yet some don't care to figure that out. Far more than any animal on this planet.
    J_Jammer
  • http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/castlist.aspx?sid=...
    Excellent Discovery Channel program on several people with "super" human abilities.

    The featured Synaesthete, Elizabeth Sulzer, comes off as perhaps more human than the rest of us, simply for her acceptance and response to the added dimensions she encounters everyday.

    I admire her, if not for her unique gift, and ability to explain it to others who have no baseline understanding... then certainly for not going insane.
    nkovach
    1 response to this
  • if you've never heard of this you've never tripped...btw thursday is an aqua-marine type color =)
    pirho338
    1 response to this
  • This is a fascinating subject, but at this point I don't know exactly what to make of it. The human mind is, at this point, impossible to fully understand.

    Psychology is a baby in the science community and I can't wait to see or even imagine what the advances will be seen during my lifetime.

    There are just so many different explanations for this with no actual answers. Could it simply be a learned association specific to that person's experiences (my guess personally)? Or do things, days, sounds, etc all have specific associations because of the energy their waves are made of or their specific wavelengths (another very possible explanation)? Or could it be evolutionary psychology where all of these things are associated with subconscious survival instincts that have been imprinted on our minds over thousands of years (again, very possible)?
    Chances are it will be a combination of these things and many other things as well. This is why I cannot wait to see what type of advances psychology makes in the coming years.
    torybart
  • This is a very interseting topic, how many different forms of synesthesia are there? Is there a once similiar to that of when your fully awake, you sometimes feel like you just woke up from deep REM sleep, then everything turns blurry and then all the colors of the objects around you turn to that of the color's invert (red->blue, black->white, ect.). That happends to me alot recently. I cannot figure out why. I take a medication for ADHD called "Concerta", it is a stimulant, and I have come to a theory that it could be a possible side-effect of the medication, but even once I stop my doseage of it for a few weeks (and I pass the withdrawl symptoms) it happens to me still. Do you have any ideas, could it be synesthesia?
    DDukes94
  • This is really interesting, thinking about whats discribed here I think may also have synesthesia, particlary letters and colours.

    I already have aspergers as well.
    CeyStone
  • I am so jealous...

    I hope medical science discovers how we can access the other 90 percent of our brains in us ordinary people... we may discover humans to be extraordinary creatures!
    arcticspirit
  • its so weird...i see green and red text all over this page


    aaaaahhhhhhh i have it!!!!!!!!!
    MVDIEGO
  • I actually worked on a touring exhibit which was filled with art pieces created by people with Synesthesia, it was pretty cool. They had a lot of strange requests (ie left channel above you, right channel below and pointed at a wall, and then just blasting pure noise through it) but it was certainly an enlightening experience for me as a Sound Engineer and Designer.


    the name of the exhibit was "What color does a sound make?" or something like that (this was around 5 years ago now) I'll have to pull up my resume to tell you... ah I got it wrong, "What Sound Does a Color Make?" I'm sure theres some online crap on it somewhere online.
    RudyRudell
  • noboby was shown to have heard sound
    Save_Love
  • I wonder if it affects the way music is made?
    TheNome

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