Synesthesia

Post Reply New Topic

I have grapheme-color synesthesia, along with number form synesthesia, and from what I've read, I probably also have Asperger's. I was just wondering if anyone else has synesthesia, and if so, do you have any other mental anomalies, like Asperger's? I'm curious if there might be a connection between them.

And if you don't know what synesthesia is, you might want to look it up. It's fascinating, and you might find out that you have it too. I found out myself from a TV show on the Discovery Channel.

Thanks!

I don't have synesthesia, but I have done research on it for Psych class. I know that some people have lots of problems with it, but it sounds really cool.

Just looked up this number-form synesthesia you said you experience and I apparently I do too! If seeing time and the calendar year and the number line spatially counts, that is. I thought it was pretty common to see the year as a wheel with Jan. where 11-12 would be on a clock and every other month going counterclockwise (Feb 10-11, Mar. 9-10, etc.)? I get the feeling I must have seen that in a book or something when I was little cause I thought that's how most people conceptualized the year? In my conception the year-wheel also a landscape that you can sit on and walk through and be warm and in the sand near the bottom of (summer), etc.

My calendar isn't like that at all. I can't even really picture yours very well. My weekly calendar is an oval, starting low on Monday but coming around and getting higher until Sunday where it shoots back down again, and my monthly calendar is like calendar pages lined up next to each other January through June, and August through December are vertical down and to the right of it. July is sort of hazy... I'm not sure why though. Maybe because it always just seems to speed by. My yearly calendar is pretty complicated. I think the only way to get it across to someone else would be with a drawing.

Getting this into words sure isn't as easy as I'd thought it would be...

Wow, this is so interesting! I never really believed people could have such different spatial conceptions of time.

Your 1/2-sideways - then 1/2-down design for the calendar months seems so specific and irregular it seems there must be some deeper mental meaning to that design. As in, for not only you but maybe other people too even if they don't channel this calendar view.

My week is more or less flat but headed "away from the sun" (whatever that means), in the same direaction as "fall" in the yearly map. and narrowing and dimming almost like a hallway as you go from Monday to the weekend.

I wonder, do you feel like getting through the Mon-Sun week is a grueling uphill climb, and that's why you see it as an uphill slope? Or maybe that has nothing to do with anything and I'm just making up stuff, who knows!

And wow! July is hazy for me too! It's not given its due space really in my little mental wheel!

Yeah, I'd love to see drawings of these schemas you're describing!

I've wondered why mine is shaped this way a lot. The only thing I can think is that it might be related to temperature, since it goes down from August until December, like the temperature does. But by this, I'd think it should be up with the other half.

As for weekly, I think it's because I really dislike Mondays, but each successive day is a little better, until Sunday night, which is the drop-off, since I know Monday is right after it. One thing that confuses me with this is that Monday through Friday is one side and Saturday and Sunday are the other. It really makes me wonder if there IS something behind these images.

There's a lot more to my yearly calendar than this, but around this year is sort of like what I have below. My point of view when viewing this set of years is at the ^. Right there is 2012. To the right of it is 2013, etc, and in front of it is 2009 through 2000. Left of 2000 is the 1900's. The 1900's themselves go uphill, until 1900 itself. then it levels out and goes back. There is a lot more back there, with turns and stuff, but no more hills. The only other major turn is back at around 1 BCE where it takes a 90 degree turn to the left.

---------------------------
l
l
l
--------------------------
^

Sorry I couldn't explain it better, but I can't draw at all, so a picture would have been even worse!

Nevermind. This thing changed what I put. It should be like:

-------------------------
................................................ l
................................................ l
................................................ l
................................................ --------------------------
............................................ ^

But without the periods.

Yes I have it but I find it hard to know what is and isn't part of it. I both feel sound and experience it as lines. I see colors triggered by certain sounds and by trmperature extremes.

Just to put this out for you guys-- I am FASCINATED with synesthesia. It was my TOI forever. I can tell you anything. I am just itching to ramble...

Anyway, back to this amazing topic, I have motion>sound synesthesia. For example, flashing car blinkers make sounds in my head. It just comes naturally to me. Like most synesthetes, I didn't think much about it and I thought it was normal. But, after reading A Mango-Shaped Space (my favorite book) I got intrigued with synesthesia. After reading Mango and researching synesthesia forever, I learned my closest friend has grapheme>color and, as mentioned earlier, I have motion>sound synesthesia. I think I perceive sounds a bit differently (texture, maybe?) but this one's pretty weak.

Yes, proud synesthete here! I have sound-color, light-color, personality-color, and emotion-color synesthesia. It used to be at a degree where it wasn't a problem and it was just wonderful, but now it's becoming so strong that I can rarely leave the house. I'm not functioning well...any advice?

I wish I could help you, but mine aren't that strong, so it's never been a problem for me.

[quote="aspiesynnielexi"][quote="likeasorethumb"][quote="aspiesynnielexi"]Yes, proud synesthete here! :D I have sound-color, light-color, personality-color, and emotion-color synesthesia. It used to be at a degree where it wasn't a problem and it was just wonderful, but now it's becoming so strong that I can rarely leave the house. I'm not functioning well...any advice?[/quote]

Do you project or associate?[/quote]

I project. Most of the time it's in my mind's eye, but sometimes it gets into my line of vision.[/quote]

Oh my. That must make it even harder... Thankfully mine is pretty weak, it doesn't get in the way too much!

Oh, I love talking about this. (overlong post)

I just have grapheme-color and a bit of sound -> touch* and color synesthesia. Usually I just associate instead of projecting, but rarely I project right into my normal field of vision (more common when I'm upset and in memories). Listening to music in the dark can be really fun with this. I really wish I could draw the things I see, but they always elude me and I can hardly draw anyway. They would make nice desktop wallpaper.

My visual sense of time is boring. I see weeks as a straight line, and an year is either a line or an arc pointing upward depending on how I am thinking about it. (Going over years without getting too specific produces arcs.)

I used to share number-personality synesthesia with my sister, but we both grew out of it. For example, for me 6 was jealous and manipulative and 3 was playful and innocent.

For me synesthesia is never a problem except when I'm having severe migraines**, though that could be something else entirely. I don't have visual migraine auras, but when I'm having really bad pain from migraines I see the pain as big white flashes that impede my vision. Mostly it helps me as a memory aid. In particular, grapheme-color synesthesia was useful during Mandarin Chinese class for memorizing characters. (I didn't use any formal methods for connecting characters with colors, and didn't know at the time that they existed.)

*This kind of synesthesia is normal in a mild form, right? Some tones are "warm" or "smooth", others (often reverbed or mostly high-frequency) are "cold", some are "chunky" etc. I also think that it is influenced by the tactile experience of playing instruments, but of course it also happens listening to crazy generated noises that don't sound like earthly instruments. Synesthesia as a normal and cultural phenomenon is fascinating.

**Seeing as migraines are also neurological phenomena and sometimes involve random sensory disturbances (the auras are seizures, I think, and also appear in epilepsy), could they be related at all? Perhaps causing temporary synesthesia, or just correlated with it?

This is such a fascinating topic! I have sound/sensation synesthesia. It has increased greatly in recent times, but I have been aware of it since adolescence. It is most noticible if I am lying down in the afternoon. Any sound I hear will similtainiously be experienced as a sensation. Where I feel a sound in my body will vary each time. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it. It will usually be like a wave of rippling sensation - in my chest, running down my arms or legs or sweeping over my whole body. It's neither pleasant or unpleasant. I also experience physical sensations from sights, especially something unpleasant. Like if I see a dead animal on the road I will have a strong feeling in my body. Not nausea or anything like that. Graphic violence in a movie will do the same. I close my eyes a lot or look away so as not to have this happen. Emotions are generally a very physical experience for me. I can't comprehend what an emotion would be without a physical sensation. I guess that's why we call them "feelings".