Is it true that there are some people who have a brain disorder in which they can hear colors, taste sounds etc? What portion of the brain is affected by this abnormality?
It’s called “synesthesia.” It’s rare, but does occur from time to time. Those with it might sense a certain taste in their mouth when they say particular words, or see colors when they hear certain sounds.
I remember some newsmagazine show about 15 years ago interviewing a synesthee (i.e., someone with synesthesia). She thought such things were normal until she was talking with her girlfriends and commented about how nice a particular boy’s name tasted.
I don’t know much about the cause, however. Probably something to do with crossed wires. 
More like a “condition.” Yes, it exists. Yes, it’s pretty rare (how rare can be a matter of debate). I’m a synesthete. The first time I learned that it was an actual condition, I felt simultaneously amazed and vindicated. It had never occurred to me that it was anything more than a minor quirk which plenty of people had to have. On the other hand, while stunned that it was so unusual, I was euphoric that other people recognized the sensations.
Rather than detail too much here, I’ll offer a pretty thorough and interesting article that’s a good starting place on synesthesia. The roots of synesthesia are somewhat controversial.
Discover Magazine, December 1999 - Do You See What They See?
And I’ll shamelessly plug the page I have about my form(s) of synesthesia. I’ve described a few things and also put a few links there, including a link to a friend’s page that has links I don’t.
synesthesia - the tiny cow
I always heard that the kind of brain damage hallucinogens caused could be at the root of synesthesia. Tiny cow, you are a truly good person for posting information online so ‘normals’ like me can wonder at how much we’ve been missing out on, and how different a person can be and still be a decent person. Stranger tricks have been played by abnormal brains, and I hope you can enjoy your special talent. I’d enjoy having a color experience whenever I heard J.S. Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. BTW, if you want a good book on some of the strangest tricks played by deformed brains, read “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales” by Oliver Sacks. It is a compassionate look (sometimes altogether too compassionate for a physician who is supposed to maintain ‘distance’ from his cases) at some people who have some very serious, yet not always really sad, disorders (some may make you cry, but most will just make you wonder). Interesting reading if you ever wonder how much damage a human brain can take and still be able to function as a human mind.
tiny cow, i have to know, how does my name taste? (a play on the fact that it also happens to be a waffle)
eggo
It’s been reported that people taking LSD and the like can experience temporary synesthesia. Of course, the synesthesia wears off when the drug does. This fact, though, has led some of the researchers to believe that everyone, not just a select few, has the neural connections necessary for the condition to occur. The article I posted explains a bit of it. I’ve never heard of brain damage caused by hallucinogens bringing on synesthesia, though—or did you mean the temporary drug-induced kind?
I have the book, heh, and really like it. Thanks. One other book by Oliver Sacks that I own is The Island of the Colorblind.
Sorry, eggo, not very waffle-like. What I CAN tell you, though, is that I get your name as mostly white, solidly gelatinous, and round with some very pale blue and pale red tones. The type of synesthesia I have appears to also induce something like an image along with the colors (and sometimes, “feeling”). As you might guess, your name is a bit similar to “egg.”
I have to admit that when I describe something like this, I’m waiting for someone to insist, “You’re making this all up.”
good, i’ve been trying to disassociate myself from that damn company for the longest time.
ok, that is–by far the coolest thing i’ve ever heard.
your truly,
mostly white, solidly gelatinous, and round with some very pale blue and pale red tones
Amazing. It is rare for me to be amazed at a talent, as I have seen so many people with odd ones, but yours is surpassingly interesting. How do you like my name, if I may be so bold as to ask? It has no obvious connection to food (at least no food I’ve ever heard of) or other sensations (again, AFAIK). Would you enlighten me as to what sensations my nom de plume conjures up?
I heard, from sources that might not be reliable, that brain damage caused by repeated usage of LSD and other drugs of that type would cause synesthesia permanently. Maybe I have been misinformed, perhaps I just garbled what I did read into what I typed. My memory is far from perfect.
Thanks, Derleth. I would hesitate to call it a talent, though—I just call it a quirk that has been with me as long as I can remember.
Your username’s most prominent color is green. That’s because I see your capital D as green. You also have some dark purple-maroons, a brown and some dark orange, though (which, incidentally, made me think after looking at the colors that if you had more green, you could use your name to draw a picture of a tree). The e’s that were a very pale blue in eggo’s name are pale enough in your name that I would say they’re white. The image that I have, though, is pretty abstract and the best I can do at the moment is to say that it’s like a flat, long (like a column)rectangular prism.
I do have to say that synesthetes, generally speaking, don’t have all forms of synesthesia, nor do they perceive the same things (someone else may see your name as silver or yellow). In Richard Cytowic’s book The Man Who Tasted Shapes, his subject and friend, a man named Michael, felt smooth columns when tasting mint, if I recall correctly. For me, though, tasting mint doesn’t bring about any similar reactions.
Thank you. I like the colors brown and green, and I also happen to enjoy wooded places. Neat coincidence, eh? In any case, I’m not surprised that people with synesthesia have highly individual cases that fit a certain general description. The brain works in odd ways, and no two are exactly alike. Thank you for the book reference. I think I’ll buy it if I see it.
I’m sensing possibilities for a good .sig here. I would very much appriciate it if you told me what my name is like, tiny cow.
It is interesting to learn about this condition but I believe, because of personal experience that it may be brought about in certain situations. I remember when I was in basic training, I slept on the top bunk. One morning, after having been up probably 44 of the previous 48 hours, when our drill sergeant came in to wake us, I HEARD the lights come on! It was a sound like a pillow exploding. The sound was so real that I had to look around to see what had happened and it took me a few minutes to realize that it was nothing more than the lights and that no one else had “heard” it! So maybe stress or sleep deprivation can activate the part of the brain that allows such miracles?
yes, exhaustion, severe depression, and other similar states can bring out synesthesic experiences. It can also intensify synesthesia for people who have clinically strong synesthesia. I think in the book “the man who tasted shapes” they explain that there is a temptation for some people to abuse depressants like alcohol because the joy/intensity of the cross-connected sensations is so strong, and can be intensified further that way.
If you know anything about visual processing, the basic shapes that appear for synesthsia are the same as your very basic visual building blocks. So if you have a visual cortex, you have the basics for synesthesia. Same for taste, sensation, sound. If you have the associated brain parts working, all you need is a method of crossfiring the receptors. Sleep deprivation, depressants, drugs, and so forth are sufficient to give you a taste of it. Don’t know what role it plays in hallucination or to what degree some forms of mental illness cause similar cross-firing of the sensory areas.
I’ve got a tiny tiny bit of it, not enough for me to run around announcing I have synesthesia, but when I am really really exhausted, I feel voices on the centers of the palms of my hands. I recall one guy having a voice like papery cones pointed at my palms, but with a kind of cotton-ball ‘underfeel’ - sorry, that is as close as I can explain. Also sometimes during sex when I have a really mindblowing … um… :
: … anyway, I get different sensations on my palms (buttery, or velvety, or granular, or smooth, etc., often with combinations of textures), sometimes associated with a wash of color as well. So, definitely state-dependant for us less-creatively wired folk.
(Phew, I managed to get out of that post without saying orgas- YIKES!)
I recall reading, years ago, a case study on a person who experienced an unusual form of synesthetic recall. He posessed somethingvery similar to photographic memory, but it was coupled with synesthesia. I wish I could recall, synesthetically or otherwise, where I read it. I think I encountered it about 6 years ago when I was doing a fair amount of reading on the mechanisms of consciousness and memory.
Apparently I should have read with more of an eye towards personal application.
Anyway, this is all just a thinly-veiled cover for the burning question: what does a Spiritus Mundi sense like?
Goodness, tiny cow, could you give me a description of my username? All the kids in MPSIMS would be ever so jealous of the new sig line it would inspire!
Thanks!
This is going to be long; I apologize for the length but I hate skimping on describing this, especially because words sometime seem inadequate.
Sofis:
Because of the s’s in your name, the most prominent color you have is a really rich pink and scarlet. The i is yellow and so it adds a sort of gold highlight to your username. The f is a very dark maroon-purple, something like the r I mentioned in Derleth’s name earlier. The o’s effect on a word when it comes to color is usually negligible. As for the shape, Sofis, you’re very rounded and flowing and kinda soft. Sort of like steam, except—harder or more palpable steam. Maybe even a bit like fabric.
Hi Spiritus, heh.
What you mentioned seems to make me think of a term mentioned on a mailing list I’m on; eidetic imagery. I honestly don’t know the meaning of the term and have never seen it used anywhere but on this mailing list, but I haven’t read a lot about synesthesia. I have wondered, though, if it applies to the image recall along with the color recall I get when I see words. The image recall often seems to match the actual meaning of the word, though when I’m met with a name like Derleth it’s usually something abstract.
Okay. As for your name, “Spiritus” is obviously similar to what I see in “spirit.” The s’s are deep crimson and tend to be the word’s most prominent color, but the green p is brighter, if not more dominant. You also have some yellow highlights in the i’s. The purple-maroon r and the brown-maroon-purple t are pretty quiet and sit in the background. The word shape makes me see yellow light along with some intermixed…pieces?..of color, all going upward like if you blast water into the sky and the particles hang there for a bit. It also has two outstretched…limbs, maybe? The “us” makes the word a little heavier and more grounded than the word “spirit.”
The colors in “Mundi.” The m is sort of a pale red-pink; imagine the color of pale red opaque cake frosting, almost. The u is a very pale and sort of unimportant yellow which really fades next to the orange n and the very green d. The i is not just yellow here but sort of a gold-yellow, possibly because of the effects of the n (letters can change colors somewhat in the context of a word). Unfortunately, the “mund” part of the word makes it sort of look like a heavy, largish lump.
Put together, the effects of the colors in your username are really nice. There are some words, though, where the color mix or the shape isn’t so nice. The name of one of our long-gone trolls comes to mind (I won’t say it).
The “Mr.” part always sort of makes me see a round face with a mustache (best way to describe it, in people terms). But it’s not a very big or noticeable part of your name and I rarely pay attention to it. The word “cynical” is full of yellows, golds, and oranges; c’s are a gold color, n is orange, and i is true yellow here. The y is a pale pink, almost like salmon, the a is pale enough to be almost white (has some very, VERY pale red in it) and the l is a dark black-maroon. The word image I get for “cynical” is something like someone leaning back, examining something skeptically with narrowed eyes; I can’t actually see detailed faces and people with these things, they tend to be more abstract, but the general effect is that of a person. You could almost say the face looks… cynical, heh.
I expect you’re probably tired of this, but would you do me too? Thanks in advance.
Thank very much. I hope you don’t mind if paraphhrased a bit.
Proofreading, Sofis, proofreading. When will you ever learn?