are you synesthetic ?

[toobfreak]

That’s just associating certain sounds with certain colors. It’s not “hearing color”. I maintain that that’s impossible

No, it is possible and it happens. With some people it is a subtle mix, but in a very few, they see vivid color or hear vivid sound in association with another sense. It might even be via taste, smell, or some other sense. I've heard of people that experience a salty sensation or some other taste or odor in response to certain sounds, sights, or places.

 

[braalian]

The "colors" aspect of synesthesia is the best studied.

V4 is the color processing area in the human brain, and we have functional MRI studies that indicate it's wired differently in synesthetes.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken words - PubMed

In 'colored-hearing' synesthesia, individuals report color experiences when they hear spoken words. If the synesthetic color experience resembles that of normal color perception, one would predict activation of parts of the visual system specialized for such perception, namely the human 'color...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Mmm… still skeptical

Do people, in studies, consistently identify certain words as certain colors? Particularly non-nouns? For example, is the word “walk” consistently orange or purple or something?

Because otherwise, this just sounds like random people randomly ascribing random colors to random words

 

[scruffy]

That ties back to the thought I had last night: since the brain must have the ability to rewire itself to work around damaged areas, it only stands to reason then that some people might accidentally or inadvertently cross-connect sensory information to other reception areas that they be perceived as an altered sense via unusual circumstance or drug use, etc.

Apparently synesthetes have some special skills and a superior memory.

Average memory for self detail in synesthetes is 123 items, in normals it's only 31.

So let's put on our thinking caps, we can figure this out.

What do memory, scene construction, and colors have in common? We just talked about this in the other thread.

 

[scruffy]

Mmm… still skeptical

Do people, in studies, consistently identify certain words as certain colors? Particularly non-nouns? For example, is the word “walk” consistently orange or purple or something?

Because otherwise, this just sounds like random people randomly ascribing random colors to random words

Good question. Excellent set of questions. I don't know, but I'm fascinated by this. I may try to contact that guy Strang and see if he has a database of willing subjects. I think, according to the previous post, we would know exactly where to look for something interesting.

On his lab page Strang says he does electrocorticography, which means he must have access to human patients with pre-implanted electrodes.

It seems to me this is a golden opportunity to begin answering the question "why is red red?"

 

[braalian]

Good question. Excellent set of questions. I don't know, but I'm fascinated by this. I may try to contact that guy Strang and see if he has a database of willing subjects. I think, according to the previous post, we would know exactly where to look for something interesting.

On his lab page Strang says he does electrocorticography, which means he must have access to human patients with pre-implanted electrodes.

It seems to me this is a golden opportunity to begin answering the question "why is red red?"

Or the question every kid on earth has asked at some point: “How do I know if what I see as blue is the same as your blue?”

 

[toobfreak]

Do people, in studies, consistently identify certain words as certain colors? Particularly non-nouns?

No, why would they? this is a condition specific to the individual, not to the word or sound, but it might be interesting to see if there is any patterns, for example, I would associate dark colors with sadness or gloom, while I would associate bright colors with excitement or anger.

 

[braalian]

No, why would they? this is a condition specific to the individual, not to the word or sound, but it might be interesting to see if there is any patterns, for example, I would associate dark colors with sadness or gloom, while I would associate bright colors with excitement or anger.

It’s not really “hearing color” then, is it?

Of course we associate certain colors with certain moods. We’ve known that as long as there’s been humans

True synesthesia would be like the scene in Poltergeist (the sequel I think?) where the little psychic girl can reach into a bag of rolls of yarn and pull out, sight unseen, specific colors based solely on touch

Such things are cool in movies, but unless I see real, reproducible, studies I’m skeptical

 

[sparky]

The "colors" aspect of synesthesia is the best studied.

V4 is the color processing area in the human brain, and we have functional MRI studies that indicate it's wired differently in synesthetes.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken words - PubMed

In 'colored-hearing' synesthesia, individuals report color experiences when they hear spoken words. If the synesthetic color experience resembles that of normal color perception, one would predict activation of parts of the visual system specialized for such perception, namely the human 'color...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

An apt explanation Scuff.....

~S~

 

[scruffy]

The evolutionary context is:

Computational advantages accompanied by changes in perception.

The "additional connections" theory says if you add a wire, you get a new perception.

Depending on how you look at this, a colored ring of calendar days could either be a computational advantage or it could be a hallucination.

If you're a fighter pilot, a heads up display is a computational advantage.

But if you tell your psychiatrist you're seeing things she'll lock you up.

 

[sparky]

So are we to consider synesthesia (sp) not some handicap, but an evolutionary event Scruff??

~S~

 

[scruffy]

So are we to consider synesthesia (sp) not some handicap, but an evolutionary event Scruff??

~S~

Well, maybe we can see if it spreads in the population. So far I've seen two numbers, one said 4% incidence and the other said 5-17%. I haven't looked at either source yet. Not sure if this indicates a trend, we could look and see if there's any historical writings about it (people like to write about stuff like that).

Functional MRI is a little funny from a connectionist standpoint, just because there's a hot spot doesn't mean a direct connection. If there really is a direct connection, one of the subjects would have to will their body to science and they'd have to autopsy it and find out.

 

[scruffy]

So are we to consider synesthesia (sp) not some handicap, but an evolutionary event Scruff??

~S~

Seems the answer is yes. Preliminary research shows strong inheritability (51%) and people with one type of synesthesia are also more likely to have another, pointing to some underlying biochemical/genetic cause.

There is one interesting case I found, this guy Daniel Tammet, who claims his synesthesia allowed him to memorize pi to 22,514 digits. Trouble is, he's also a savant with Asperger's.

Daniel Tammet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The guy working on genetics is Simon Fisher at the Max Planck Institute. Turns out there's not just one gene involved, there are many. Some can be directly tied to specific kinds of synesthesia (SLIT2) while others can't (ROBO3) but can "predispose" an individual to be more likely to express. Most of the genes involved are axogenic and turn on at different times during development.

Loading…

neurologytoday.aan.com

 

[sparky]

Seems the answer is yes. Preliminary research shows strong inheritability (51%) and people with one type of synesthesia are also more likely to have another, pointing to some underlying biochemical/genetic cause.

There is one interesting case I found, this guy Daniel Tammet, who claims his synesthesia allowed him to memorize pi to 22,514 digits. Trouble is, he's also a savant with Asperger's.

Daniel Tammet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The guy working on genetics is Simon Fisher at the Max Planck Institute. Turns out there's not just one gene involved, there are many. Some can be directly tied to specific kinds of synesthesia (SLIT2) while others can't (ROBO3) but can "predispose" an individual to be more likely to express. Most of the genes involved are axogenic and turn on at different times during development.

Loading…

neurologytoday.aan.com

This is interesting Scruff......

seems medical science is bend on labeling some manner of physiological malady onto Mr Tammet......

he would have probably been viewed as some sort of heretic in the old world.....and by similar sorts ~S~

 

[scruffy]

There is another completely different and competing model of synesthesia, that has to do with a brain area called the claustrum.

This is the claustrum:

This area is interesting for two reasons:

1. Electrical stimulation disrupts consciousness
2. It is rich in kappa opiate receptors, which mediate the synesthetic effects of salvinorin A (the active ingredient in salvia divinorum).

The claustrum is the single densest and most heavily connected area in the entire brain.

 

[scruffy]