Anecdotal Evidence Theater, Essay Version

[corivax]

There have been three interesting public posts on my friends list about synaesthesia of late. ( 1, 2, 3), plus two interesting friends-locked ones. Far be it from me to do anything other than mindlessly follow the cool kids!

I think "synaesthesia" as the official medical definition goes is reasonably uncommon, but most people I've talked to have

Comments

[tylik]

You were there, and involved, in my coming to realize that a lot of how I deal with mathematical relationships has a sorta synaesthesic aspect. When I say mathematical relationships, I mean just about anything that can be mathematically modelled (and a lot of things that probably oughtn't to be, but more of that later). I usually refer to these and geometrical abstracts, and at the simplest level they are often models in my head of collections of entities and relationships, often involving weights and balances. Though they also involve color, temperature (I think the latter two are often, though not always, related), texture and density, degrees of purity, and then a whole set of attributes having to do with their energetic interactions with eachother. (Which are often also, color, temperature, degree of purity or consistancy of signal... except they have their own sensory mode, so it's more like I'm hearing one set and seeing the other. They exist in the same space, but the don't really overlay.) I think one of the reason I

[corivax]

Have I told you recently you have a beautiful brain? :) Thank you for taking the time to write that out - lots to contemplate. "Evergetic interactions" are particularly fun braincandy.

[tylik]

*laughs* Thank you. Much of the time, I feel like my brain clearly works as well as those of most people (at least, on average) but apparently by mechanisms that aren't that common. One of the things that I love about being in a research environment is this seems to be both more acceptable, and more useful

[takhisis]

Hmm... I remember when I was learning multiplication tables I calculated them based on the numbers' personalities/emotions. I can't recall all of them now, but 2 was friendly, 6 was afraid and 8 was a cruel bastard.

I do have a tendency to describe tastes in terms of colors, because, well, that's the right word. I also find that certain sounds will trigger odd reactions, like a sudden sense of peace triggered by a ticking noise, or hunger from riffling paper, or suchlike.

[tylik]

Have you read any of C J Cherryh's Foreigner series? Much of the society of the atevi is based on similar numerical associations.

[hello_mike]

Speaking of unusual colour effects, did you know that your posts appear as black-on-black when I click on them to comment?

Anyway. I can taste certain things, like oil, steel and other metals, and concrete, when I touch them, or hear them being abrased somehow (except for oil, obviously). I've never really figured out what the criteria are, but it's pretty consistent for a lot of metals, at least.

[caladri]

Ooh! Anything conductive has a taste for me, at least slightly. At least, it's something like that. I blame this on sucking on too many coins and sticking too many batteries to my tongue when I was small. Sensory feedback for things like textures and the like I tend to take for granted.

Obligatory 'just thinking about touching a cotton ball has such strong pan-sensory associations that it makes me want to scream' :)

[xmurf]

I was just about to comment "Thanks for reminding me that I am the only person in the entire world that doesn't have any synaesthesia at all."

[cairisrin]

Not only do I lack any trace of synaesthesia whatsoever, I lack several senses. I can only truely see at dawn and dusk, visually imagining things in my head is actually easier with my eyes open than closed (too many distractions in the black drop that's never truely black), touching things confuses my brian, and while the last hearing test I had put me above average, I know things are getting lost in the traslation. For that matter, language of any kind is a real challange.

I think the only change in my senses occurs when I look up at the stars. Then everything changes. I can't smell at all, or taste for that matter (and they're usually my strongest senses), but what I see is so connected to what I feel I can't explain it past saying I'm no longer standing on Earth, but rather on the edge of Earth.