Can synesthesia be learned? and some Q's.

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Just wondering. I've always been fascinated by it. I hear people will do things like mix colored shapes in their heads to form new shapes and multiply numbers or predict this and that.

What I'm wondering is, does it feel like there's a method about it? Or are the associations purely random?

For example, I'm very good at mixing/paint colors. Could I assign numbers to each color in such a way that when I mixed them i could add them?

Do only two things mix? Sound=colors or do more? sound=color+tastes? Is it a very strong connection?

Do you both hear the color and see it? or just see it? like one sense turns into another?

Is it useful for anything?

Any answers would be great, I might have made too many, so thanks.

While there is some evidence that some grapheme-color synesthetes first learn their associative colors from the colors of magnetic refrigerator letters in childhood, true synesthesia only will develop if the correct brain wiring is present. Many color synesthetes and synesthetes who experience taste sensations have extremely idiosyncratic perceptual experiences, and there are often colors and tastes that don't exist in the natural world.

For the most part, though, the associations are random and present from so early on that they feel like an inherent part of the person's being. For grapheme-color synesthesia, some studies have found that the letter "S" tends to be yellow and the letter "O" tends to be white, but this isn't always the case.

As for the usefulness of synesthesia, there is a correlation between having synesthesia and having proficient memory abilties. It seems as though the natural associations create natural mnemonics. I believe that I have spatial-sequence synesthesia and ticker-tape synesthesia, and I know that my synesthetic abilties definitely play a big role in why I have such a prodigious memory for facts and dates. I also think I have mild day of the week/color synesthesia, and I know that some of my days of the week colors came from a set of day of the week underwear I had when I four years old. But others (like the colors for Friday and Saturday) are entirely my own creation.

Finally, I have always had a strong ability to form associations, but there is a difference between the associations I believe are probably true synesthesia and those that aren't. For instance, I have always been able to easily create personalities for letters, numbers, Barbie dolls, inanimate objects, etc., and when I'm coloring something, I often will select colors on what "feels" right. But these aren't associations that are set in stone by any means. True synesthesia is unchanging through time and is very strong. So, basically, you can certainly create associations as a memory trick, but it doesn't mean that these associations are going to resemble actual synesthesia.

First question:
- I don't know. I have ticker tape and motion sound. We THINK I might have developed the ticker tape as a baby, because Mom would read to me and I would watch her follow the words.
We actually are wondering (although this is pure hypothesis) if I would be verbal if I didn't have ticker-tape. That's because I had severe echolalia as a child, and still echo people, and find language difficult to comprehend but very easy to imitate. Certainly seeing words in my head when you speak them gets them across to me....I don't think they would come across or make sense if I couldn't read them as you spoke.

Sort of like a baby sitting by Mom watching her trace her finger over a word as she reads. That's how my ticker tape is.
However, conversations have background color, so I have no clue where that came from.

And my motion sound syn.....where did that come from? It's brain wiring with some environmental epigenetics for you.


For me, the associations are both random, and at times learned. For example, watching trees blow in the wind has a mild wooshing sound, but I can't get rid of it. Blinking sounds like popping. But then some motions have no association whatsoever, and just have sound. Like people's legs when they walk - everyone has a different frequency.

I think, that unless you already have synesthesia, you can't just develop it. I tried to "develop" a mathematical syn. for associating shapes with numbers, but was unsuccessful, largely because my ticker tape got in the way.

I think that more than two things can mix. My ticker tape, for example, mixes sound with vision with motion and color.
And as far as sensory integration....well....it's just a normal sense to me. I didn't know it wasn't normal until I asked my professor how she changed the alphabet that she saw when she heard a different language. Synesthesia....just.....is.

And yes, it's useful. My ticker tape allows me to learn foreign languages faster because I can study vocabulary by reading, and hear it, and practice it, all together because I read in my head.
And, I can play musical instruments because of my motion sound - sound has a place in space, or on a musical instrument. Get the tune in your head and match the tune to the location - voila, a song.

Does that help?

I have sound-->texture and colour.
Also: VIisual Motion --> Sound

Interestingly visual sound isn't coloured for me. I hear instruments as texture and colour. I'm almost tone deaf, but can recognize very small fractions of songs based on the quality of the sound from an instrument. This means I can recognize some songs before the recording even starts playing because of the "recording buzz" (clicks pops, tape decks amp fuzz, etc.) I experience some colours that do not exist for me in the real world. (Though I am extremely colourblind from birth. So they may exist for other people.)

As far as learning, I don't think you can. I didn't know I had synesthesia until someone pointed out that I always describe movement with sound. Later on I became aware that it was because I was experiencing sound other people were not.

Synesthesia isn't learnt.

http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstnns/reprints/RCK_et_al_2005.pdf

They had people do exactly what you're proposing, learning the color-number associations, and it resulted in a distinctly different pattern of results from a true synesthete.

Is there a list of different types and/or sub-types of synaesthesia which describes the phenomenon that anyone could recommend?
I'm looking for a comprehensive list as the lists I have found are inadequate.

Thank you!

Sorry but I think it's something you gotta be born with.

You can't just "learn" which color goes with which number/letter....or which smell goes with what word, or what texture a language has. It all came very natural to me. I never liked "soft" or "smooth" words, I like "hard" and "sharp" words. Must be why I like the German language:P