The guitar sounds green: What is synesthesia?
Even if it seems that way, sensory impressions do not arise in the nose or on the tongue - but in the brain. This incredibly complex organ interprets sensory impressions individually for each person. But the differences are greater than you think. This is especially true for people with very specific sensory processing: one in 25 people is a so-called "synesthete" - a person whose perception of the senses is mixed. Smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch merge into one another.
Synesthetes can not only hear music but also see or taste it.
So colorful is music
What does synesthesia sound like? The first notes trickle out of the speakers as sky-blue drops. Radiant cones and abstract sculptures grow slowly from the ground, while the violin rains pulsating, glowing bubbles from the sky that burst in a shimmering arc of light. A sea of silver light billows across the parquet floor - the double bass caresses the flaming pyramids of the piano, which are reflected in the golden spheres of the clarinet. The crescendo lets pulsating points of light blow across the scenery in a swirling breeze. For many synesthetes, music is an experience that appeals to all the senses.
mixing of sensory impressions
An old philosophical question is: Do all people perceive the world in the same way? Does red look the same to you as it does to me? Or does our reality only emerge where we actually perceive it - in our heads? The fact is: There are people who experience the world completely differently. Synesthetes hear colors, they taste shapes and they feel music. The most common is "hearing colors" - synesthetes perceive words, noises and sounds "in color". In principle, however, all sensory connections are possible; a lemon then tastes like glass beads rolling over the fingertips, a five smells of hazelnut, and silk feels green. Letters or numbers can be blunt, hard, metallic, plush, or simply taste like bananas. The word synesthesia is derived from the ancient Greek συναισϑάνομαι - synaisthánomai, which means "to feel with" or "to perceive at the same time". Synesthetic perceptions are not subject to voluntary control, but can be blocked out through conscious focusing.
What types of synesthesia are there?
In principle, the mixing of all possible sensory impressions is possible. Human perception, on the other hand, is complex and anything but clearly definable, so there is no definitive list of types of synesthesia. The German Synesthesia Society, for example, speaks of over 80 different forms. Common examples include:
- Color hearing: Sounds or music are perceived simultaneously in color or as shapes.
- Emotional synesthesia: Emotions are perceived as colors or shapes.
- Grapheme-color synesthesia: Letters or numbers are inseparably associated with a color.
- Sequence-space synesthesia: Weekdays, months or numbers have a clear spatial arrangement in the mind’s eye.
- Linguistic personification: Characters are associated with a gender and character traits.
- Person-color synesthesia: Characters are assigned a typical color.
- Lexical-gustatory synesthesia: Words have a certain taste or texture that can be felt on the tongue.
In synesthesia, sensory perceptions mix in the brain.
How does synesthesia arise and how often does it occur?
Can synesthesia be detected in the brain?
What do flowers smell like to a synesthete? Loud numbers and unpleasant days of the week: Can synesthesia be annoying?
However, the mixing of different sensory impressions also has negative aspects for some synesthetes. The beeping of a computer on the way to work in the morning can manifest itself in the form of blood-red spikes protruding from the walls. Synesthetes are quicker than other people to feel overwhelmed by complex signals - they feel overwhelmed by stimuli. On the other hand, they often have a much better memory than others: for synesthetes, for example, a telephone number consists of different colors that form a solid, pictorial structure. This is easier to remember. In addition, synesthetes are more likely than average to take up creative professions such as artists or musicians - they live in a world of colors, shapes and structures from childhood onwards.
Is synesthesia a disease?
Synesthesia is definitely not an illness. Some more philosophically oriented scientists see synesthetes as children of a new generation of the human race. Is this what the future of humanity looks like? People who are able to connect all of their senses and thus be able to find new creative and intellectual paths? Other scientists, however, suspect that synesthesia is a relic from the past. This is supported by the fact that infants generally have a stronger connection between individual perceptions, which they then lose over time. So while hard-working scientists continue to try to understand the phenomenon of synesthesia, those affected sit back and enjoy the bright colors of music, the taste of the clouds and the sweet smell of the sunset.
External sources
- What is synesthesia (German Synesthesia Society)
- Rare variants in axonogenesis genes connect three families with sound–color synesthesia (Amanda K. Tilot, et al., 2018 – English source)
- Familial patterns and the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia (Kylie J Barnett et al., 2008 – English source)
