Week #3 Door Into Consciousness
J Burns -
Synesthesia is evidence that there are so many signals in life that we are unaware of. The interconnectedness of various signals creates something new altogether. Because the extra associations also help with memory, there are practical uses for it as well.
This week, I have been focusing on both interviews and the synesthesia book, which I will cite below.
Most people who have synesthesia insist that it doesn’t distract them, which makes sense as any person who grew up with a particular set of senses wouldn’t be distracted by them. Also, most synesthetes don’t have two way synesthesia, meaning most will have color-sound (sounds produce colors) or sound-color (color produces sounds), but not both. And synesthetes who do experience both tend to be the only exception to not being bothered by their extra senses. In a case like this, the noise and color will just intensify since noise and color produced by other things can cause more.
Some other notable things from the chapters I read were that similarly shaped letters, N and Z for example, will have very similar shades.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is that Synesthesia behaves far more like a spectrum than a condition one has or not. Evidence points to increased connection between gyrases in the brain as cause for synesthesia, which means everyone possessed potential for synesthesia as children.
Furthermore, even though non synesthetes can’t understand the perspective of synesthetes in the world, they understand the basic premise. Enough that it is used as a strategy in books and also in metaphors. Some examples of metaphors employing synesthesia are “loud tie”, “warm color”, and “cold hearted”, which are universally understood. Then, the spectrum continues with memories, which are very powerful in the human brain and cause connections reminiscent of synesthesia, such as connections between memories and smells. Then, actual synesthesia where senses are connected in a more profound way than memories.
And somewhere in between these two categories is where plasticity comes into play. The human brain is resilient, and as such, it finds ways to remap components in the brain when needed. This is the reason for which blind people become more attentive to sound, but it also exists on much smaller scales. Studies in the 70s showed that it only took 24 hours blindfolded for other senses field into other ones, causing hallucinations to compensate.
Because synesthesia continues to happen genetically, a lot of doctors are considering other ways that has meaning in our lives. One of the ways I researched this was through the tasting the universe book, which has interviews as well as being written by a synesthete. This book talks a lot about the impact it had on them, specifically in their careers.
Aside from that, I have been able to conduct my first three interviews. I haven’t compiled the data yet, but I’m excited to share my findings. From what I have looked over, everything is going how I expected it to for the time being.
MIT Press Book: Cytowic, R. E. (2018). Synesthesia: A Union of The Senses. MIT Press.
Tasting The Universe: Seaberg, M. A. (2011). Tasting the universe : people who see colors in words and rainbows in symphonies : a spiritual and scientific exploration of synesthesia. New Page Books.
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