Posted on 01/14/2006 9:26:42 AM PST by Frank T
US scientists say they can explain why some people 'see' colours when they look at numbers and letters. As many as one in 2,000 people has an extraordinary condition in which the five senses intermingle, called synaesthesia.
Some see colours when they hear music or words. Others 'taste' words.
The study in Neuron tracked the brain activity of people with the most common form and found peaks in areas involved with perceiving shapes and colours.
Cross-wiring
The University of California San Diego team said their findings lend support to the idea that the condition is due to cross-activation between adjacent areas of the brain involved with processing different sensory information.
This cross-wiring might develop, they believe, by a failure of the "pruning" of nerve connections between the areas as the brain develops while still in the womb.
For example, a person with synaesthesia might see red when they look at an ordinary figure '5' drawn in black ink on a white background because the red colour perception area of their brain is stimulated at the same time as the number recognition area.
The researchers conducted a series of experiments on volunteers with and without synaesthesia.
When the people without synaesthesia looked at letters and numbers only the brain areas involved with processing this information light up on brain activity scans.
In comparison, the people with synaesthesia had activity in colour perception regions as well.
Colour by numbers
Furthermore, some of the people with synaesthesia appeared to be better at 'seeing' colours than the others.
Those who had stronger colour perception had more activity in their colour perception brain areas.
Researcher Vilayanur Ramachandran said processes similar to synaesthesia might also underlie our general capacity for metaphor and be critical to creativity.
"It is not an accident that the condition is eight times more common among artists than the general population."
Dr Julia Simner, who has been studying synaesthesia at the University of Edinburgh along with colleagues at University College London, said the findings were supported by similar work looking at people who see colours when they hear sounds.
"Interestingly, we've recently analysed the letter-colour combinations of a very large number of people with synaesthesia and found that there are significant trends in their preferences.
"For example, people with synaesthesia tend to want A to be red, S to be yellow and Z to be black."
She said her research also revealed that people without synaesthesia have significant preferences for the colours of letters.
"Some of these choices were fairly obvious, such as 'O' being orange, but some were quite intriguing, and showed a similarity to those of people with synaesthesia."
Her findings are currently in press to appear in the journal Cognitive Neuropsychology.
Jennifer Green from the University of Cambridge, who has also been carrying out research in this area, said: "Some describe seeing the colours induced by letters and numbers as projected externally into space, while others report experiencing them internally, or in their 'mind's eye'.
"This research lends further support to empirical evidence suggesting that these varying descriptions represent actual differences in the way synaesthesia occurs in individuals."
Thanks for that, very much enjoyed it.
For those of you who've posted claiming to have synesthesia, listen to the music of Alexander Scriabin.
You'll 'see' what I mean.
For those who aren't, it's still quite a treat.
Ya know I smell things every time I see Sen Teddy.
Alexander Scriabin, the mad Russian composer, may also have been a synaesthesiac. His "Prometheus, the Poem of Fire" tone poem featured a specially-designed organ that projected colors into the air when notes were struck. He associated different notes with different colors. His immense unrealized "Mysterium" was to have combined all the senses in a grand festival of perfumes, music, dancing, and feasting. Alas, he died before he could even really begin it.
5.56mm
And I smell a skunk every time they speak!
When I was in school buying folders and notebooks for classes I was always compelled to choose specific colors for the class. I just HAD to. I remember math was always yellow.
You beat me to the Scriabin suggestion! You've won this round.
I have gagaesthesia. When I see Ted Kennedy or Chuck Schumer I gag.
I have gagaesthesia. When I see Ted Kennedy or Chuck Schumer I gag.
Scriabin took it further than most, but I believe many other composers also associate certain keys with certain colors and moods.
Of course,the title has been passed on to
Mr.Methane .
http://www.mrmethane.com/
See #31.
And I smell a skunk every time they speak!
Darn. All I get is a gag reflex.
The number 4 is young and male. Sort of a scamp. The number 3 is young and female. I don't remember much else about her. 9 was mystical to me, 8 old and female. I did't like 5, can't remember why.
Yes! Yes!
I have always anthropomorphized (sp?) things. When I was little, I played with my crayons as others do dolls. Colors & numbers & letters always have had personalities & gender.
My husband has always thought I was more than a little weird.
S is a certain shade of green (darker than L), the same as September. November is the same battleship gray as N.
J is a dark shade of red (tho' different from that of R), and thus so is January, and you would think that June and July would be, too...but they're not. They're both a midnight green, so dark as to be nearly black. Moreover, the shape of the year does something odd in those months. Its ribbon departs from its undulating, slaloming helical shape, and forms a deep gouge, so narrow that May almost touches August, forming a tight angle with an exquisitely sharp corner. Somehow, when you're in that corner, everything seems locally smooth and flat, but viewed from the outside, it's all but hidden. Since my youth I've thought of the 4th of July as residing "in the dark corner of summer".
Yesterday I was nosing around a science supply website, looking through the dissection kits and related products (frogs, earthworms, etc.). I noticed a faint but distinct smell of formaldehyde (a little goes a long way)... a "fond" memory from my high school biology class.
Smell and memory are interconnected, but I always associated it in that order (i.e. a scent triggers a memory).
In this case, the memory triggered the smell. Weird. Fortunately, the formaldehyde went away when I read the description... the creatures were preserved in odorless propylene glycol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.