What Is Synesthesia
Synesthesia is a neurological disorder in which data that is supposed to activate one of your senses activates many of your senses. People who have synesthesia are called synesthetes. The term “synesthesia” derives from the Greek words “synth” (which means “together”) and “esthesia” (which means “perspective”). Synesthetes will be able to see music as colors when they hear it, and “taste” textures like round or pointy when they eat food. Researchers are also uncertain how widespread synesthesia is.
There are at least 80 recognized synesthesia forms, but some are more common than others:
- Mirror-touch synesthesia
Though rare, mirror-touch synesthesia is notable because it can interrupt the life of a synesthete. In this type of synesthesia, an individual experiences the same sensation as another person in response to a stimulus. Seeing a person getting tapped on the shoulder, for example, will make the synesthete feel a tap on the shoulder too. - Chromesthesia
In this common type of synesthesia, sounds and colors are related to each other. For some synesthetes, the musical note “D” can correspond to seeing the color green. - Lexical-gustatory synesthesia
This is an uncommon form of synesthesia in which hearing a word results in taste. For example, the name of an individual could taste like chocolate. - Grapheme-color synesthesia
This is a common type of synesthesia characterized by the presence of graphemes (letters or numerals) shaded with color. Synesthetes do not equate the same colors with each other for a grapheme, although the letter “A” tends to be red to certain individuals. People who experience grapheme-color synesthesia often report seeing impossible colors when red, green, blue, or yellow graphemes appear next to each other in a word or number. - Number form
A number type is a mental shape or a number map that is the product of seeing or thinking about numbers.