Sensory Catastrophe- A boon?

Welcome to the first edition of Cerebending! I couldn’t be more enthralled to do this and I am eagerly looking forward to sharing intriguing phenomena with you!! I’ll try my best to keep it as simple as possible and not use words like Honorificabilitudinitatibus or Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia or Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. :))))) 

I vividly remember the nursery rhymes that were taught to us in kindergarten. One of them was on the five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. The words, “eyes to see”, “nose to smell”, “skin to feel”, “tongue to taste”, “ears to hear” have been drilled into the brains of toddlers all around the world. 

Let’s get creative and think out of the box for a minute. What if you could taste what you saw or feel what you heard. What if you could smell what you heard or see what you heard. Is it possible for the words in the history textbook to look like a colour palette or the word “tomato” to taste like strawberries or like somebody’s shoes?!!

Most of you might think that is a book review of a highly creative sci-fi novel. However, my purpose in writing this is to acquaint you, my dear readers,  with the most mind-boggling, befuddling, outre’ condition. 

POP Quiz Alert: 

What medical discovery has indubitably been the greatest blessing for both surgeons and patients? 

You guessed it right.. .It’s Anaesthesia. You experience absolutely no sensation while the surgeon drills, cuts, hammers or stitches you.

Today, we’re not going to talk about anasthesia a.k.a ‘no sensation.’ We’re going to explore its bewildering brother, Synesthesia- combined sensation. 

Synesthesia is the blending of senses and occurs in various forms. For those interested in the formal definition(I know most of you will omit this part), it is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as:

 "A sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color."

There are various kinds of synesthesia and is prevalent in its most active form in 2%-4% of the population(the acceptance rate of your dream schools)  :)). 

Let’s begin with my favourite. Buckle up because this is going to be an exhilarating journey!

Imagine if you were able to taste words in your book. Studying would be so much more fun and grades would sky-rocket ORR grades would fall drastically if words like ‘a’ and ‘the’ tasted like uncooked meat. 

Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia: In this type of synesthesia, the synesthete( person with the condition) can experience tastes while thinking/talking or reading. I wonder how the name “lexical- gustatory” would taste or if the word chocolate was sweet or actually sour or if the word ‘pani-puri’ tasted like broccoli and the word ‘broccoli’ tasted like raspberry sorbet. The thought ‘I’m going to fail my exam’ might actually be… sweet!

Moving to the next, 

The most common form of synesthesia:

Chromosthesia: In this form of synesthesia, one can perceive colours in non-visual stimulus. The piano notes you play might appear to you in pink or purple or mauve or deep yellow or a blend of red, orange and light blue. “Which note did I just play students?” “Pink ma’am! Apologies! I meant c sharp!!” 

In grapheme colour synesthesia, each letter/digit/punctuation mark appears in a specific colour. This colour remains fixed throughout a synthesthete’s lifetime but may vary from synesthete to synesthete. Eg: If A appears red to Elizabeth, A will always appear red to her. But A might be blue for Lizzy or rainbow for Ella. I wonder how my name would appear to a synesthete?? (I’ve posted a link in the activity section where you can type in your name and delve into the world of colours). 

In spatial sequence synesthesia,  the synesthetes imagine words/letters/numbers in peculiar manners. Numbers may appear right in front of you, swirling in a gigantic spiral or simply on a straight line. 

In oral linguistic synesthesia, people assign personalities and characteristics to numbers/letters. Purple is the queen of colours, has a shrill voice and loves to wear extravagant diamonds and long flowy gowns while yellow is a wretched peasant in her kingdom. 

“I can feel your pain”: In mirror touch synesthesia, you can literally feel the other person’s pain in the same or different part of their body.  “Arm amputees experience touch in the phantom limb merely by watching another person's hand being touched”.

Synesthesia is not a malady. Synesthetes cannot imagine life without their special abilities(superhero powers, if I may) and they experience another level of sensations. They have enhanced creativity, memorisation and retention capacity.

“What is the name of the girl I met the other day. She said something ‘blue’ and ‘blue = C. Carmen, Charlotte, Oh yes! It was Catherine. Catherine with a C cause it would be blue if it were with a K!!” 

It is also easier for them to solve certain puzzles like these:

It would take a comparatively longer time for you or me to find the 2s. However, for a synesthete, the answer is right in front of their eyes, highlighted in red. 

Memorising phone numbers, thousand digits of pi, tables upto 3000 is just a piece of colourful, delectable cake (if the colours, smell and taste is to your liking). 

However, every rose has its thorn. Some synesthetes tend to have poor concentration and comprehension skills. They can read and memorise swiftly but understanding what they’re reading is truly an onerous task. 

The first  reported known case of synesthesia was in 1812.  Georg Tobias Ludwig Sachs, said that he could “see ideas” and the “colours of his ideas were intimate and recurring.” 

Some of the best and most creative minds are synesthetes. Richard Feynman, Mozart,  violinist Caityn Hova(whose video I have attached in the activity section), Albert Einstein and modern day celebrities like Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Lorde, Pharrell Williams are synesthetes.

In fact all of us have synesthesia that is why we understand metaphors so well. However, it is simply expressed more in certain people.  Most of us are able to tell how the food “tastes” by the mere scent/smell of it. “Heart of stone, time is money, couch potato, laughter medicine” are understood by us but experienced in real-time by synesthetes. 

Let me ask you a question. Look at the picture below 

Which one do you think is called Bouba and which one do you think is called Kikki? This is the Bouba-Kikki effect. Majority of the people (including toddlers aged 2-4) reply have found to assign the same name to the same shape. Many of us also tend to associate shapes with colours and assign personalities to letters. 

This brings us to the big question:

WHY DOES SYNESTHESIA OCCUR? How do we differentiate synesthesia from hallucinations or a person on certain drugs?

To answer the first question, science is still rudimentary to explain the exact cause byt there are many theories. Synesthesia results from excessive neural connections/ “ cross-activation” between different parts of the brain concerned with certain functions. For a synesthete who can taste what he sees, there may be excess neural connections between the occipital lobe associated with vision and the gustatory cortex associated with taste. It is common for a synesthete to show a lack of neural pruning. Pruning takes place rapidly between 3 and 16 years during which synapses that are no longer/less frequently used fade away and the synapses that occur more frequently get strengthened. (The reason why you’re better at something that you do more frequently as opposed to something that you did 10 years ago. More on this is in the upcoming articles). Due to lack of pruning and increased connectivity, synesthesia might be enhanced. 

The neurochemistry of synesthesia includes neurotransmitters meant for one part on the brain, way over in the other and reduced inhibition between sensory areas that do not frequently interact. Synesthetes have more grey matter in their superior posterior parietal lobe.

Synesthesia is also found to be genetic  and has a ratio of 6:1 of female synesthetes to male synesthetes. This shows that synesthesia inheritance might be an X-linked.

What makes synesthesia different from hallucinations or side-effects of drugs is that the experience is involuntary and constant throughout a person’s life. They don’t occur for short periods. A circle will always be red, purple will always be associated with b flat and the word cake will always taste bitter(though actual cake once put in the mouth will be sweet). 

In lower animals, each part of the brain was mapped for a specific function. However, due to evolution and as man became more social and intellectual, different parts of the brain had to take on the functions of being social, aggressive, moral, envious, sympathetic, virtuous, and of our conscience. We perform a plethora of functions over and above eating, growing and sleeping, which might have led to overlapping of certain neural connections. 

The word “disgusting” is used for something that is repulsive or something that is morally incorrect. The most intriguing case of synesthesia was of a synesthete who was colourblind. He is said to perceive colours that ordinary people like us have never seen. This shows what a colourless world we actually experience and there is so much out there than what we experience or ever will be able to experience. 

Synesthesia proves to us that we don’t know everything about the world that we live in and how our sensory experiences are absolutely elementary.

I hope you enjoyed reading about synesthesia and before I sign off, I have a few activities for you!

Activity section!!

1. What colour is your name?

https://synesthesia.me/see-your-name#/

Click on the link and type in your name. Take a screenshot of it and send it to me or put it on your story and tag me. 

1. https://youtu.be/obrBAysVef0?si=BDnK67dE_uSjPAnh

What's It Like To Hear Colors? - A VR 360° Synesthesia Experience. Watch this to learn more about a synesthete who could see colours whenever she played a note on her violin and thought that everyone could do it until she went to college!!!

1. Answer to the Bouba-Kikki effect:

The spiky shape is Kikki. (Did you think so too?)

I am absoluely certain that most you will finally discover your "inner synesthesia" after reading this!

Until next time,

Tanisha C.