i've gotten lots of questions about synesthesia lately so i thought i'd do a quick run-down of some facts about it, especially about my own experience with it:
synesthesia is basically when at least two senses get stimulated by the same stimulus. it's abnormal. it's not supposed to happen. (naturally, i would get something that's not supposed to happen.) so, for example, some synesthetes (that's what they call people who have synesthesia) hear colors or taste sounds (that's what i do) or feel things they see. like, maybe if someone sees a bridge, they feel itchy. some synesthetes have multiple forms of synesthesia and to an extent, i do. my primary experience is tasting sounds (mostly spoken words) but i also feel sounds, albeit to a lesser extent than tasting them.
my earliest memory of tasting sounds was in third grade but i have probably done it all my life. i never mentioned it to anyone because it never occurred to me that it was unusual. i didn't even think about it. but if i had thought about it, i still wouldn't have said anything about it because, well, i figured everyone did it. it wasn't until i was a sophomore in college that i discovered that not only does everyone not do it, practically nobody has ever even heard of it.
the way i found out that i have it is, i was at one of my friend's apartments one evening during my college years at ohio university. she was complaining to me about her roommate and she kept saying that her roommate was a "bitch." after about 15 minutes of hearing the word "bitch" over and over, i finally said what i assumed was obvious - "hey, judi, let's go over to the deli and get some corned beef!" she looked at me like i was crazy. i looked back at her like she was. finally, i said, "well, you know. you keep saying "bitch" and "bitch" tastes like corned beef."
that was the moment that brought the sky down on me. in a good way, but it brought the sky down on me. it was the beginning of finding out that i have a condition that is rare. and that everyone i would meet from that night on would be intrigued by it. nobody less than myself.
coincidentally enough, the magazine "psychology today" came out a few months later with this on its cover: "can you taste or hear colors?" i saw the magazine and thought to myself, no, i can't do that. but i can taste sounds.
and so i read the article.
that was my first real education about synesthesia. it was the first time i had ever heard the word. (btw, it doesn't taste like anything. not all sounds do.)
i ended up at the university of michigan for a few days to undergo some evaluations to see if i had it and sure enough, i did. do.
basically, what happens in synesthesia is, a stimulus that is intended to go to one sense, say, a sound that is intended to go to the ears, splits off at the nerve synapse, likely due to an abnormally high level of acetylcholine, and instead of the stimulus just traveling to one sense, it goes to two. or more.
as soon as people find out that i taste sounds and to a lesser extent feel them, they want to know what everything tastes like. especially their name.
stay tuned for synesthesia, part two.
("part" tastes like a bit o' honey candy car and "two" tastes like swiss cheese.)
:)
