Ask the synaesthetes (reprise)

[zelie zelerton]

Since there were quite a few questions on the unusual experiences thread I thought I'd open up a new one about synaesthesia. This was previously done here (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=387422&highlight=synaesthesia) but if anyone wishes to post questions, thoughts or experiences this might be the place to do it.

[Cat Whisperer]

Okay, I'll repeat my question from the other thread - are other synaesthetes very tactile people? I love textures - they are as important to me as any other aspect of things in my life.

[LifeOnWry]

Okay, I'll repeat my question from the other thread - are other synaesthetes very tactile people? I love textures - they are as important to me as any other aspect of things in my life.

I am. One of the reasons polymer clay is my medium of choice is that it is a very hands-on material.... and it's also relatively clean. While I need to have my hands in what I am doing, I can't bear drippy, gloppy, or slimy stuff on me. That, however, might be due to mild OCD and not so much to the synaesthesia.

Now my questions: has anyone ever looked in any depth into why synaesthetes have this sensory cross-wiring? Is there any correlation (scientific or anecdotal, I'm not picky) between synaesthesia and other brain "weirdness" like ADD, OCD, autism/Asperger's Syndrome, and so on?

[Gentle Robot]

Sometimes I'll be overpowered by a smell (stench of garbage) or a certain pitch of sound (sirens, fire alarms). Have you ever felt the same way about something objectively ordinary, that is attached synesthetically to something nasty?

e.g. The name William might smell awful to you.

[Omi no Kami]

I don't have synaesthesia or any related condition, so I have absolutely no authority on this. I had a biopsychology prof a few years ago, however, and his theory was that that cross-wiring was a bit of a misnomer; he claimed that there was nothing wrong with the afferent nerves: sensory signals got to the CNS just fine, but once they reached the thalamus they found themselves mis-directed. Essentially, the so-called thalamic radiation would mistakenly direct auditory signals to the visual cortex, visual signals to the auditory cortex, or what have you.

[zelie zelerton]

I am. One of the reasons polymer clay is my medium of choice is that it is a very hands-on material.... and it's also relatively clean. While I need to have my hands in what I am doing, I can't bear drippy, gloppy, or slimy stuff on me. That, however, might be due to mild OCD and not so much to the synaesthesia.

Now my questions: has anyone ever looked in any depth into why synaesthetes have this sensory cross-wiring? Is there any correlation (scientific or anecdotal, I'm not picky) between synaesthesia and other brain "weirdness" like ADD, OCD, autism/Asperger's Syndrome, and so on?
Richard Cytowic has done some early work on synaesthesia which is detailed in The Man Who tasted Shapes (part descriptive, part science). He has looked at things like blood flow to the brain area during synaesthetic experience and made some interesting hypotheses on what exactly is happening.

There is a group at University College London who have been looking into synaesthesia for years and regularly conduct research among groups of synaesthetes. They are also involved in a regular symposium detailing their research. The main site can be found here. http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/jamie.ward/synaesthesia.htm

As for the relationship between various disorders - I forget who (might be Cytowic) so apologies for lack of links - but 'somebody' has noticed that many synaesthetes are related to people with autism and ADHD.

[Kythereia]

Disclaimer for any of these answers: I pretty much only figured out I was a synaesthete from the other thread, so I'm really, really not an expert. Take any of these with a big pinch of salt. ;)

Okay, I'll repeat my question from the other thread - are other synaesthetes very tactile people? I love textures - they are as important to me as any other aspect of things in my life.

I love certain sensations--silk, leather, fur, feathers, fresh sheets and blankets right out of the dryer. Others, like spit, goo, slime, and squishy stuff, I'll be absolutely revulsed by.

Sometimes I'll be overpowered by a smell (stench of garbage) or a certain pitch of sound (sirens, fire alarms). Have you ever felt the same way about something objectively ordinary, that is attached synesthetically to something nasty?

I can't think of anything nasty, but when I play Mendelssohn's Venetian Boat Song I always get overwhelmed by the colours--sunset and autumn colours, oranges and golds and reds and pinks and purples.

[amelioration]

Originally posted by Kythereia
Disclaimer for any of these answers: I pretty much only figured out I was a synaesthete from the other thread, so I'm really, really not an expert. Take any of these with a big pinch of salt.

Same here. ;) I was very surprised to discover that it was actually considered a "condition" with a scientific name and possible genetic causes. I thought it was something most people's minds did (even though most people I know thought it was crazy when I said that the numbers 1-100 snake upwards by tens in my head!)

Originally posted by featherlou
Okay, I'll repeat my question from the other thread - are other synaesthetes very tactile people?

I am, also. I absolutely adore the textures of velvet, panne and chenille--thus nearly half of my socks and a good portion of my shirts (along with some pants) are made of those fabrics. I love (faux) furs, too. I also can't stand the feeling of matte surfaces--touching that fabric they make windbreaker jackets and some winter coats out of literally makes me shudder.

[Kricket]

Smells and tastes have always had color for me. I just thought I was odd.
I think only one of my children does this with smells and tastes. We were sitting in a resturant and there was guacamole on the plate and I had never tried it before.
So I dipped my finger in it and wow..."here Josh it tastes like green!" Hesitant he tried some and agreed that it does taste like green. My other kids tried it and agreed that Josh and I were crazy.
I also have a body oil that I tell everyone smells like sunshine. I can't even describe the smell, it's sunshine.
Sometimes it bothers me when I tell people stuff like that and they think I'm just being silly.
I'm going to have to read up on this.

[WarmNPrickly]

I just get colors with letters and number. They aren't overpowering colors, and some letters the colors can be ambiguous. The colors are always there, but they are so faint that if i don't think about them its as if they aren't there. I will almost always remember the first letter of a word or name; however, because I will remember what color the name is. Foriegn letters have different colors.

[tashabot]

I honestly never heard of this before until now. I thought everyone associated things with colors.

Apparently not.

For me it's smells and numbers. I always thought the numbers thing was a holdover from Sesame Street or something.

Music kinda, too, although it's not individual notes but songs. For instance, right now on my shuffle playlist "Rockstar" by Nickelback is on. It's a deep, vibrant red song. However, "I Choose" by the Offspring, which was the last song that played, is a pale orangey color. And I always saw Beethoven's "Fur Elise" as a kind of depressing pale blue.

~Tasha

[zelie zelerton]

Christopher it sounds as though you are one of us. :) Not everything will be a full-on experience. For example, for me the latter part of the alphabet is often just very dark coloured or not particularly strong. There's not much to differentiate there other than the normal background stuff (shape of letter, sounds etc).

I guess if you haven't been told or don't have it then it can sometimes sound as though synaesthetes are having these mindblowing experiences all the time! Actually it's just normal - we don't know any different and it's just going on in the background there. But when we describe it to the people I call 'Flats' then I guess it seems strange. Hence their reactions of disbelief and interest.

One interesting thing I picked up from Cytowic's book - synaesthesia is thought to be associated with the euphoric centres of the brain. Does anybody else feel the same joy I do when experiencing their thing? Do you deliberately induce intense synaesthetic experience? I often listen to VERY LOUD music and will repeat the same song over and over just to hear the fabby white-centred-mirror-black of a particular drum (or whatever) or to surf on the singer's voice. To the point that I get somewhat hyper. Anyone else bliss out like this? :)

[zweisamkeit]

I mainly seem to have a music to colors & textures association. I'll usually have some sort of idea of the colors and textures (almost an environment, really) that goes with a song, but the more I know the song (listen to it a brazillion times, know each note, etc etc), the more fleshed out the song/environment gets. I explained it in the previous thread, but if anyone wants more detail, I'll try to explain more or give more examples.

[freekalette]

Zelie, I have that euphoria thing going on!! I've been reading these posts with increasing fascination (and understanding, on some level.) Everyone thinks I'm crazy for turning my music up all the way and listening to the same song over and over. My joy is so huge, it's like something spiritual. Like what coming face to face with God would be like. I cry for sheer happiness. And I feel textures with it too. (and when I'm actually FEELING something, it has vague traces of something visual, but I'm not sure what.)

None of my letters or numbers have colors or sounds, but I do have a really weird thing where I SEE sounds. Like in a comic book. BAM!! POW!! SMACK!! I don't think folks believe me. This thread is fascinating. And makes me wonder...have any of you synaesthetes ever *ahem* taken any kind of mental stimulants? What are the effects it has on you? I'm not only referring to illegal substances either. Perscription meds or alcohol, anything that can alter your mood/perception.

[WarmNPrickly]

Christopher it sounds as though you are one of us.

I do beleive that I have syneasthesia, but I always question it for a number of reasons. First of all, it seems that there may be a coolness factor with having such a thing. For that reason, there is some motivation for people to make up that they have it. (I would never question anyone that said they did.) I can also imagine that I might convince myself that I have it when I don't. After all, as you mentioned, it's not like I get a full on hallucination every time I see a letter. So I make a habit of telling people what I experience in the dryest terms possible when the subject comes up rather than telling people "wow I see colors with letters its so cool".

It is true however, that I sort words by color. I will often confuse D words with P words and K words with E words because they are similar colors. P has a little more blue than D. I am horrible at spelling because as long as a word has the right color I'm good. "ie" is the exact same color as "ei" the mnemonic be damned.

freekalette - I am sorry to say that as far as I know drugs have no effect on it. This is something that is hard-wired, not a temporary condition brought on by hallucinogens. It is not a wild experience like you think. It's just a little bit of life.

Here's an interesting one I have only experienced a few times. Occasionally, when I taste wine, its only happened with wine, I get a position with the flavor. The first time this happened I told my friends without thinking "Well that wine shot though my eyes around my head and went down my back". They all looked at me like "what are you talking about?" There was no doubt, for whatever reason, that wine was giving me that sensation. One of the wines we did for the SDMB Wine club was like a shock at the back of my throat. Most wines don't do that, but once in a while its just wierd.

[freekalette]

Christopher, no apology neccessary. And perhaps I was unclear in my queston. I'm not asking if drugs (for lack of a better term) will CREATE these experiences. I understand that synaethesis is embedded into a person. My question was, when people who HAVE it add in a chemical factor, does it affect the condition?

[WarmNPrickly]

I would say probably not, but I can't speak for everyone.

[Cat Whisperer]

I do beleive that I have syneasthesia, but I always question it for a number of reasons. First of all, it seems that there may be a coolness factor with having such a thing. For that reason, there is some motivation for people to make up that they have it. (I would never question anyone that said they did.) I can also imagine that I might convince myself that I have it when I don't. After all, as you mentioned, it's not like I get a full on hallucination every time I see a letter. So I make a habit of telling people what I experience in the dryest terms possible when the subject comes up rather than telling people "wow I see colors with letters its so cool".<snip>
You're probably right about that. I didn't know I was a synaesthete until I read a thread on it here years ago, then it all fell into place for me. The number four is green for me; it just is, always has been, and always will be. There's nothing cool or mysterious about it for me; it's just the way it is. It never occurred to me to question other people about it ("Are fours green for you, too?"); I probably just assumed other people associated disparate things like this the way I do.

For the record, I did have an anxiety disorder for 13 years. No autism or ADD/ADHD that I'm aware of. Just the opposite, actually - I have great powers of concentration. I think one thing I do better than most people is making decisions based on taking into consideration the whole situation and seeing the way things relate to each other.

[Quiddity Glomfuster]

For the record, I did have an anxiety disorder for 13 years. No autism or ADD/ADHD that I'm aware of. Just the opposite, actually - I have great powers of concentration.
It's a misconception that people with ADHD cannot concentrate. While the inattentive type might tend to daydream, both types can and do hyperfocus on things they are interested in. The inability to pay attention generally happens when the subject at hand doesn't interest the individual.

[zelie zelerton]

I think people may have misread my earlier post. The indications were not that people with synaesthesia had ADHD/autism but that they often had relatives who had.

As for the drugs, Christopher is not exactly correct. There is evidence that substances such as caffeine makes it harder to focus on synaesthetic experience. 'Flats' who take LSD can occasionally experience the world synaesthetically though nobody has been able to consistently create that effect to my knowledge. Poppers also have an effect but I'm damned if I can remember what.

None of this comes from my own experience (including the caffeine which doesn't even wake me up) but from reading up on various experimental data. I haven't any idea of the effect of illegal drugs or medications since I don't use the former and when I use the latter I'm too sick to pay attention. :p

[LifeOnWry]

In my experience, "depressant" drugs - cold medicines, tranquilizers, liquor, and (back in the day) pot all heighten the synaesthesia effects a bit, and stimulants - caffeine, ritalin - subdue it.

Going back to something Christopher said, this is never like a hallucination for me - colors aren't shooting out of letters or anything like that. It's more a sense that "these things just go together because they do." Sixes are female, Pink Floyd's music is usually green, chocolate ice cream is a winter food and I wouldn't dream of eating it in the summer. I do play music bits over and over and quite loudly because I like the way it feels in my head. I'm hyper-aware of texture and sound, and have an extremely sensitive sense of smell (despite the fact that I am a smoker and people insist there's no way I can be smelling their shampoo from across the table.) My memory seems to be extremely visual and smell-oriented... if I read something and am paying attention to it, I can repeat it verbatim years later because I can still see the words on the page (and can remember where on the page the particular text was); smell-wise, certain smells trigger particular memories, and they're more often than not very mundane moments, rather than "lilacs remind me of my grandmother." And in reverse, too - certain memories trigger smells for me.

I asked about the ADD/autism/etc connection because I have always sort of lumped this in with my assorted "disorders" - I do have ADD, and mild OCD (more compulsive than obsessive). One of my little weirdnesses is trying to classify and quantify things, and I have decided (with absolutely no real evidence and certainly no psych or medical experience) that all these things fit together somehow on a spectrum I call "minimal brain dysfunction" - in other words, my brain isn't broken, it's completely functional, it just works completely differently than a "normal" brain. :p

[Cat Whisperer]

<snip> have an extremely sensitive sense of smell (despite the fact that I am a smoker and people insist there's no way I can be smelling their shampoo from across the table.) <snip>
I have a very good sense of smell, too. Like the synaesthesia, I thought everyone smelled as acutely as I do until recently. I mentioned something to my husband about how his hair and skin smelled, and he said that he can't smell hair and skin. How can you not smell hair? It smells like hair. And skin smells like...skin. The downside is that people who load on the scents are very difficult for me to handle - it's like being around someone who is yelling constantly.

[zelie zelerton]

In my experience, "depressant" drugs - cold medicines, tranquilizers, liquor, and (back in the day) pot all heighten the synaesthesia effects a bit, and stimulants - caffeine, ritalin - subdue it.

Going back to something Christopher said, this is never like a hallucination for me - colors aren't shooting out of letters or anything like that. It's more a sense that "these things just go together because they do." Sixes are female, Pink Floyd's music is usually green, chocolate ice cream is a winter food and I wouldn't dream of eating it in the summer. I do play music bits over and over and quite loudly because I like the way it feels in my head. I'm hyper-aware of texture and sound, and have an extremely sensitive sense of smell (despite the fact that I am a smoker and people insist there's no way I can be smelling their shampoo from across the table.) My memory seems to be extremely visual and smell-oriented... if I read something and am paying attention to it, I can repeat it verbatim years later because I can still see the words on the page (and can remember where on the page the particular text was); smell-wise, certain smells trigger particular memories, and they're more often than not very mundane moments, rather than "lilacs remind me of my grandmother." And in reverse, too - certain memories trigger smells for me.

I asked about the ADD/autism/etc connection because I have always sort of lumped this in with my assorted "disorders" - I do have ADD, and mild OCD (more compulsive than obsessive). One of my little weirdnesses is trying to classify and quantify things, and I have decided (with absolutely no real evidence and certainly no psych or medical experience) that all these things fit together somehow on a spectrum I call "minimal brain dysfunction" - in other words, my brain isn't broken, it's completely functional, it just works completely differently than a "normal" brain. :p

Again, the research shows that synaesthetes have phenomenal memory which is noted for the clarity and detail given when described. There is also apparently a strong sense of order for synaesthetes - from personal experience I'd go halfway on that. I'm very particular about where certain things go but I don't obsess about it. Often it's about having a nice space to work in or something nicer and more ordered to look at (e.g. keeping coloured pencils in the 'proper' order). That said I can also be horribly messy at home. :D

I'm not attacking you LifeOnWry but I take great exception to being told that I have a brain 'disorder' and I suggest you start doing that too! My experiences and the research done by the profs seems to indicate that I am actually better off having a synaesthetic brain. Though possibly I might go deaf early due to listening to music so loud. :p

[WarmNPrickly]

Going back to something Christopher said, this is never like a hallucination for me - colors aren't shooting out of letters or anything like that. It's more a sense that "these things just go together because they do.

You see for me it is more than just an association that they go together. It's not like a hallucination, yet the colors are real and present. I see them on the page, but it's not like they are actually there.

[yBeayf]

Audio-visual synesthete here. Most of the time I don't literally "see" shapes and colors in music -- I just know they're there. Mostly I associate colors and occasionally shapes with timbres and occasionally with certain pitches.

Sometimes, though, I will actually see visualizations. This is quite rare, and usually startles the shit out of me. It happens infrequently enough that I've never been able to figure out what is special about the sounds that do this, but occasionally I'll hear something and simultaneously see a red haze, or yellow streaks, and such. A few weeks ago I was sitting in my recliner and was startled to suddenly see two large pea-green circles on the right side of my field of vision; it took me a few moments to figure out what had happened -- my cats had knocked over a glass in the kitchen.

[Cat Whisperer]

<snip>I'm not attacking you LifeOnWry but I take great exception to being told that I have a brain 'disorder' and I suggest you start doing that too! My experiences and the research done by the profs seems to indicate that I am actually better off having a synaesthetic brain. Though possibly I might go deaf early due to listening to music so loud. :p
I agree - I think I think just fine! :D (It takes normal people so looooong to make connections, man! Jeeze, it's so obvious. Can't you see how everything fits together?)

[zelie zelerton]

I agree - I think I think just fine! :D (It takes normal people so looooong to make connections, man! Jeeze, it's so obvious. Can't you see how everything fits together?)
Yeah and how in god's name do you lot learn to even read when all you can see is flat, black letters? What? No real shapes? No colours? How do you people remember things?

You guys are freaks!

[LifeOnWry]

I'm not attacking you LifeOnWry but I take great exception to being told that I have a brain 'disorder' and I suggest you start doing that too! My experiences and the research done by the profs seems to indicate that I am actually better off having a synaesthetic brain. Though possibly I might go deaf early due to listening to music so loud. :p

Oh, I'm not feeling attacked, so no worries. I also happen to think that having ADD is a great advantage in many ways, though "normal" people would classify it as a disorder. Synaesthesia seems to be less the norm, which is the only reason I'd even lump it in there, 'cuz as everyone knows, "different=wrong" :D

[Dunderman]

Sorry to keep harping on the same point I did in the other thread, but I find this endlessly fascinating.

If you see sounds as colour the way Anastasaeon does, as in seeing lines radiating out of a speaker, do these lines obscure objects behind them? If there's music playing in an art gallery, do you miss details on the art? If not, how does it work? Are the lines semi-transparent or what?

Do you see these lines all the time, everywhere (footsteps, voices, engines...) and if so, doesn't it get godawful annoying?

[yBeayf]

If you see sounds as colour the way Anastasaeon does, as in seeing lines radiating out of a speaker, do these lines obscure objects behind them? If there's music playing in an art gallery, do you miss details on the art? If not, how does it work? Are the lines semi-transparent or what?
Most of the time, as I said, I don't see the colors hallucination-style. I just know that, for example, that singer's voice is cream-colored, or that guitar is blue, or that particular piece of music is dark velvety red.

When I literally see colors, it's only for the duration of the sound, which (thinking a bit more after that post) only seems to happen with loud sounds of short duration. I honestly don't know if it obscures objects or not, because I'm usually too busy trying to process what the fuck just happened (aargh red haze! oh, the monitor tube blew up; aargh green circles! oh, the cats knocked a glass into the sink; etc.). If I find a way to reliably induce hallucination-style visualizations, I'll make careful observations and report back here.

[LifeOnWry]

Sorry to keep harping on the same point I did in the other thread, but I find this endlessly fascinating.

If you see sounds as colour the way Anastasaeon does, as in seeing lines radiating out of a speaker, do these lines obscure objects behind them? If there's music playing in an art gallery, do you miss details on the art? If not, how does it work? Are the lines semi-transparent or what?

Do you see these lines all the time, everywhere (footsteps, voices, engines...) and if so, doesn't it get godawful annoying?

As yBeayf said, it's not so much seeing the colors as knowing the colors - and I understand that makes very little sense. Christopher seems to have a different experience of this, but I'm almost sure we're all describing the same thing differently. The colors are there - when I've been on heavy-duty cold meds or even when I'm overtired, I actually SEE them (with my eyes as opposed to in my brain) - the effect is kind of like an aura, rather than shooting or radiating lines.

As hard as that is to describe, it's even harder thinking how to describe the gender of a word or number (and don't ask me to, my brain is overtaxed right now.)

As for your art gallery/music playing question, I'm going to leave that to someone else, because I have issues not related to synaesthesia where that's concerned (more ADD stuff.)

[Kythereia]

Sorry to keep harping on the same point I did in the other thread, but I find this endlessly fascinating.

If you see sounds as colour the way Anastasaeon does, as in seeing lines radiating out of a speaker, do these lines obscure objects behind them? If there's music playing in an art gallery, do you miss details on the art? If not, how does it work? Are the lines semi-transparent or what?

Do you see these lines all the time, everywhere (footsteps, voices, engines...) and if so, doesn't it get godawful annoying?

I don't see anything so much as feel anything if that's possibly weird enough...

Sometimes I'll see specific shapes in that colour (ie. the sunset during Mendelssohn's Venetian Boat Song) or have specific tastes in the back of my mouth (lemon meringue for yellow, tomato for red). But mostly I'll just play a D-major scale and think 'emerald green', or see silver--moonlight especially--and think 'champagne-flavoured'. It's really odd to me, too.

[WarmNPrickly]

As yBeayf said, it's not so much seeing the colors as knowing the colors - and I understand that makes very little sense. Christopher seems to have a different experience of this, but I'm almost sure we're all describing the same thing differently. The colors are there - when I've been on heavy-duty cold meds or even when I'm overtired, I actually SEE them (with my eyes as opposed to in my brain) - the effect is kind of like an aura, rather than shooting or radiating lines.

I agree with this. It's not a halucination. The colors are there as sure as the letters are, but the colors aren't really part of the visual field. It's sort of half-way between just in your head and being really on the page. I don't think to figure out what colors I see, it happens instantly. I have never noticed an enhanced effect from cold medicines.

[Dunderman]

It sounds like Anastasaeon is describing something different from you guys. She said that she does visually see the colours.

[Cat Whisperer]

Numbers and letters each have a specific sex and colour to me, but I don't actually see any colours other than what is there in real life. It's more of a feeling for me than an actual sense being stimulated.

[Heralynx]

Here's an interesting one I have only experienced a few times. Occasionally, when I taste wine, its only happened with wine, I get a position with the flavor. The first time this happened I told my friends without thinking "Well that wine shot though my eyes around my head and went down my back". They all looked at me like "what are you talking about?" There was no doubt, for whatever reason, that wine was giving me that sensation. One of the wines we did for the SDMB Wine club was like a shock at the back of my throat. Most wines don't do that, but once in a while its just wierd.


Wow, I'm so glad to see someone else say this; that's how I am all the time, pretty much--I experience things in shapes in my body and that doesn't seem to be a common form of synesthesia, to the point where I wondered for a while if I could even classify it as that. I don't do it with tastes as much as words and numbers and smells and everything else, really; in math class I always had problems when I couldn't fit math problems into a shape that made sense. I feel tastes in my hands, behind my ears, on my shoulder blades, down my back. I just ate some almonds a few minutes ago and I could feel them in my left shoulder. One of the pluses of this is that I'm a fabulous masseuse--when I'm touching someone's shoulder, I feel it in my own shoulder. Also, I'm a speed reader, because I know words by shapes and can read about three at a time. I can also memorize songs after one to three listens, because I know the shape of the music in my body--when it touches my leg, or my shoulder, or the top of my head. misspelled words--and especially words with improper spacing drive me crazy--because they're -wrong-.

The more I write the crazier this sounds, and the more I realize how difficult it is to explain.

I think the shapes and the colors and everything aren't literally, physically there when we observe them: but think of the letter S for example. When you look at it close up, from a purely physical place, it's just a couple of curves on a page. It's only when you pull back a little and look at it that you know it as S--it's a built-in meaning separate from the purely physical presence of it. So now think of it as having another layer of meaning to it, that only some people see, a deep red shade that lightens on the inside of the curves. It's not physically there--but it's still part of the letter.

[Kricket]

Could someone please link a good site for this?
I tried to google it and the only sites I could find for a few pages were just about the numbers and sounds.
I would like to read up on the different kinds.
Like I said mine is mostly with taste and smell and I'm not sure if that fits.

[Rhiannon8404]

My synaesthesia is mostly about taste. When I eat something it almost always tastes like a shape or a color, often both. Sometimes the shape and color are related to the object. An orange tastes orange, but why does pasta taste violet?

Chocolate tastes oval. The higher the percent, the more elongated the oval tastes. Unsweetened chocolate tastes like a straight line, crappy cheap milk chocolate tastes like a circle.

Sometimes I make pasta sauce from scratch and I get frustrated because it's too pointy or not pointy enough.

These are just examples, everything I eat is like this.

I've learned to curb my instict to respond to "How did you like <whatever>?" with words like, "Oh, it was wonderful really quite pink and green, and just round enough" and say something like, "Yummy" instead.

[zelie zelerton]

Could someone please link a good site for this?
I tried to google it and the only sites I could find for a few pages were just about the numbers and sounds.
I would like to read up on the different kinds.
Like I said mine is mostly with taste and smell and I'm not sure if that fits.
I posted a link upthread someplace for the UCL site. It's not big on descriptions upfront but does have an interesting faq section and also has screeds of links to various synaesthesia associations around the world plus a few pages which individual synaesthetes have posted. I lack the energy to post all those links here so I'll just give you the main one again. :p

http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/jamie.ward/synaesthesia.htm

[Mike Fun]

I think everyone has synesthesia to some degree, and there are may different varieties of the experience.

People with perfect pitch are probably synesthetes of a particular type. A friend of mine who has perfect pitch described it as hearing the notes as distinctly different as you would see the colors of the rainbow. He wasn't even aware that other people couldn't do what he could until high school music theory class.

[WarmNPrickly]

People with perfect pitch are probably synesthetes of a particular type.

I would say no, as perfect pitch requires a fundamental ability that most people simply don't have. I have extraordinary relative pitch. I can pick out intervals and sequences of notes with precision that can split a hair. I can have music in my head for hours and give you the name of a note, so sometimes it even seems like perfect pitch. Play a note to me out of the blue and I am dead in the water. Perfect pitch is just a different ability. The combination of perfect pitch and synesthesia would be interesting.

[Mike Fun]

But that's my point, my friend could distinguish notes with complete accuracy even before he had any formal musical training - he just didn't know the names until he was taught them.

[WarmNPrickly]

ut that's my point, my friend could distinguish notes with complete accuracy even before he had any formal musical training

That is extremely unusual. Most people with perfect pitch began music very young. It is also the best example that this is an unlearned talent that is unrealated to synesthesia. This freind of yours is fundamentally gifted (or cursed as some have described it.) to distinguish pitches out of the blue. It is a physical talent that is quantifiable. It is a very different phenomenon from associating taste with shape or whatever.

[CairoCarol]

My synaesthetic sensations are very definite (as a small child I remember pestering my mother "but what color is Tuesday?" because that's the only day of the week I don't see something for). But they are very restricted in range. Numbers, days of the week (except Tuesday), and certain vowel sounds all have colors: either grey, black or a dull orange.

Heh. I'm a color-blind synaesthete.

[WarmNPrickly]

except Tuesday

Isn't it funny that there are exceptions? 9, O and Q are virtually colorless to me.

[berff]

It's hard for me to grasp the concept of not having synaesthesia. When I listen to a song, for example, each element of the music has a specific color, shape and texture. What do normal people "see" when they listen to music? If they close their eyes, do they just see nothingness?

[GrrlGenius]

Oh, cool, a synaesthete thread!

I'm only mildly synaesthetic, and while I (thank the gods) no longer get migraines, it used to be the case that it would kick into major overdrive during a migraine. It would overwhelm me massively to the point of hallucinating and taking over my language. You'd know I'd be in bad shape if I started referring to the sink ribbons (running water).

I'm also an artist, which produces some interesting results at times, but honestly, I don't know how I'd handle not being this way. It just makes it so much better. Words are tangible, sounds are tangible, foods set off little displays of fireworks in my head (which is probably why if I don't like the way something tastes, I wind up gagging on it and being unable to eat without actually puking)

This is probably the largest gathering of synaesthetes I've seen. Awesome. :)

[zelie zelerton]

It's hard for me to grasp the concept of not having synaesthesia. When I listen to a song, for example, each element of the music has a specific color, shape and texture. What do normal people "see" when they listen to music? If they close their eyes, do they just see nothingness?
That's an interesting point and one I've tried many times to convey to the people who ask me about my synaesthesia.

Imagine for a moment the colour red. Now imagine that I have newly visited this planet and have no concept of 'red'. Now try to explain to me what red is. And to make things as difficult as it is for a synaesthete to describe their sensory experience you may not describe it with reference to anything, for example 'It's the colour of this apple' isn't allowed. Just try that for a moment.

Difficult isn't it? People could come up with things like fiery or bold but red isn't actually any of these things. It's not hot. It's not thick and block and nor is it brave. It is INCREDIBLY difficult to describe sensory experience. How does a non-synaesthete describe music or hearing? How does anyone?