Synesthesia (as well spelled synaesthesia); from either a Greek (syn-) “union�, & (sensation) “sensation�; is the neurological mixing of the senses. The synaesthete might, for instance, hear colors, see sounds, and taste tactile sensations. Although considered the result of autism, it is not by a blame sight exclusive to people by having autism. Synesthesia occurs as most common consequence of a bit of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD or mescaline.

Synaesthetes typically case correspondences between a shades of color, tones of sounds, and intensities of tastes that provoke replacement sensations. E.g., the synaesthete might understand the additional acute red as the pitch of the healthy gets higher, or even the smoother surface will produce of these taste the sweeter taste. These lives are non metaphorical or even simply associations; like, it is involuntary & come uniform throughout life, although occasionally immature synaesthetes seem to lose their ability by or in the period of adulthood. Depressant drugs tend to increase the depth of the perception.

Synesthesia could potentially occur after one of a senses there is no elongated functions properly, e.g., a individual world health organization might view colours whilst words come spoken might however view the colours whenever he becomes blind in later life. This phenomenon is referred to as "martian colors." the term originated from either the pack of a synaesthete world health organization was natural partly colour blind, however saw certain 'alien' colour in his synesthetic perceptions that he never saw (was incapable of seeing) in the 'real life.'

A usual forms of synesthesia require colour, existence assigned to letters, figures, times of the week or even (especially for musicians) musical keys.

Richard Cytowic wrote a pop-psych book about this trouble entitled The Man Who Tasted Shapes.

Occasionally researchers and theorists use suggested that synaesthesithe can have played a a portion inside early homo' development of writing & written literacies.

Surrogate spellings exist (synaesthesis, synesthesia), & numerous of people world health organization case a phenomenon identify when "synaesthetes".

Synaesthesia in art

Synesthesia is an typically-utilized poetic device. Around the familiar case, Andrew Marvell characterized the profitable & serene atmosphere of the garden as Also, Nick Carraway, the storyteller of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, recounts "yellow cocktail music" playing at one of Gatsby's parties.

Synesthesithe as a drug symptom played a role in the popular song "Lake Shore Drive" by Aliotta-Haynes-Jeremiah: Synesthesia has influenced numbers of artists in various fields, including poets Charles-Pierre Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud (specifically his poem Voyelles), and an substitute synesthesia has occasionally been overused since as a cutoff to "modernity."

Composer Alexander Scriabin, in his orchestral work, Prometheus: Poem of Fire (1910), included the section for the "clavier à lumières". This instrument was played like a piano, but produced coloured weak instead of healthy. Scriabin did non own experience a physiological state of synesthesia. A color formulas he described & which he utilized inside pieces like Prometheus, unlike virtually all systems & synesthetic case, lines higher by having a circle of fifths, indicating that it was a thought-out patterns; it was as well influenced by his theosophic readings and according to Sir Isaac Newton's Optics. Several more creative person own utilized fictional synaesthetic systems, like a Italian futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the Russian abstract-painting pioneer Wassily Kandinsky.

Amy Beach wwhen a synesthete, seeing different colors for different keys, too as possessing absolute pitch. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was reputed to be the synesthete. Olivier Messiaen wwhen a confessedly synesthete; he discussed his trouble heavily inside his writings, running therefore far as to describe within detail a accurate colorations evoked by particular chords. Contemporary postminimal composer Michael Torke is a synesthete who perceives colors for various unit of time. French drummer Manu Katché and world-an expert oboist Jennifer Paull are both synesthetes, Katche seeing various images by using music, & Paull seeing an expanded unaccountable spectrum to various sounds, a sensation of the hautbois compelling her to choose it higher.

Franz Liszt, when conducting, confused a musicians by describing quality or even vibrancy around chromatic terms.^{[http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/syn-composers.htm]} Ludwig van Beethoven considered B minor to become "the black key," & Franz Schubert viewed E minor equally such as "a maiden robed in white and with a rose-red bow on her breast."^{[http://www.synsation.org/episodesFull1.html]} Within such subjects of long-dead population, these are hard to tell whether it were describing their synaesthesia or even utilizing numbers of speech like victims from either Marvell & Fitzgerald above.

Inside his autobiography, writer Vladimir Nabokov described his synaesthetic lives. A Our contries physicist Richard Feynman admitted to seeing the algebraical symbols of Bessel functions in colour.

Jimi Hendrix, who knew little music theory, would attempt to describe chords & harmony inside terms of colour. For instance, a chord E7#9 (typically referred to by guitarist when a 'Hendrix chord') gave him the heavy feel of the colour purple. A chord is played under a words 'purple haze' within every verse of the song of that title.

Electronic music artist Richard D. James (better known as Aphex Twin) is said to be a synaesthete, as is Stephen Hargreaves, whose Children of Laudanum titled their first LP Synesthesia.

When digital amusement becomes additional developed, a possibility of synesthesia across technology has begun to exist as considered. Many video games already use a term in their advertising, most notably a 2001 Dreamcast/PlayStation 2 game REZ (which does have a select few elements of synesthesia inside its gameplay, notably the interaction of controller vibration, music, player interaction & graphics).

a ability to page through can exist as besides be considered a form of synaesthesia - the linking of shapes to sounds.

Clinical description

Synesthesia occurs as really phenomenon: there are indeed humans world health organization view colors while it hear or even underst& letters & prices (a usual form), and humans world health organization "taste" & sense sounds, colors, then forth. There are numbers of humans using Synesthesia. These come forecasted that 10% of humans are Synaesthetes. But only world health organization is perceiving his Synesthesia awarely may recognize a inner colors. ^{[http://www.synaesthesia.ch]} Synaesthetes own been exposed by neurologist V. S. Ramachandran at the University of California, San Diego, who remarked that "processes similar to synaesthesia might also underlie our general capacity for metaphor and be critical to creativity."^{[http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0003014B-9D06-1E8F-8EA5809EC5880000][http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4375977.stm]} Ramachandran has said it is "not an accident" that the phenomenon is noted eight times more frequently in writers and artists than in the typical population, and is more common in creative people.^{[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4375977.stm]} Synaesthesia often runs in families. All about 1-tierce of synaesthetes report that an additional personal member lives similar phenomena.^{[http://www.synaesthesia.uwaterloo.ca/genetics.htm]}

the second leading psychologist, presently a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen, is too undergoing ground-innovational search into a topic.

Around synesthesia's usual form (Grapheme-color synaenesthesia), individual letters of the alphabet, too when totals, come "shaded" or even "tinged" by using the color.^{[http://www.synaesthesia.uwaterloo.ca/]} A alphabet colour pattern is different for each personal. Numbers of synaesthetes report that it were unaware their abilities were favorite or even unusual until it realized more humans didn't stand the babies. Writer (& synaesthete) Patricia Lynne Duffy remembers the own household budget: "'one day,' I said to my father, 'I realized that to make an 'R' all I had to do was first write a 'P' and then draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line.'"^{[http://www.bluecatsandchartreusekittens.com/Blue_Cats_and_Chartreuse_Kittens_Ex.html]}

From either an additional grapheme-color synesthete: "I often associate letters and numbers with colors. Every digit and every letter has a color associated with it in my head. Sometimes, when letters are written boldly on a piece of paper, they will briefly appear to be that color if I'm not focusing on it. Some examples: "S" is red, "H" is orange, "C" is yellow, "J" is yellow-green, "G" is green, "E" is blue, "X" is purple, "I personally" is pale yellow, "Two" is tan, "One" is white. If I write SHCJGEX it registers as a rainbow when I read over it, as does ABCPDEF." (From either the [http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=140022&cid=11726211 slashdot discussion])

A second account: "I have synesthesia, and as a child I thought it was normal until I realized other people didn't see numbers and letters as colours. I believe synesthesia can link any kind of sensory input to abstract forms like letters and numbers, but in my case (and in most), it's simple colours. This makes it easy for me to remember trivial information like phone numbers, account numbers, historical dates, and pi (3.141592653589 is how far I remember without looking it up). Every string of numbers and letters forms a composite colour based on those of its individual characters. I've studied Japanese for a few years and now find that Japanese syllable characters also have colours for me now. I imagine that with extreme synesthesia, a person might understand abstract notions like numbers and math in a completely different way. I remember once showing my sister two Smarties (they're like M&Ms) and telling her they were '3' and '6' instead of yellow and green. It took me a moment to realize why she didn't understand." (From either the [http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=140022&threshold=-1&commentsort=0&tid=99&mode=nested&pid=11725481 slashdot discussion])

Locate indicates that, when couple grapheme-colour synaesthetes perceive a color associations of a alphabet within exactly a equivalent way, the distribution of system & colors shows striking trends & similarities.^{[http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/trends.html]} Although grapheme-color synaesthetes keep close at hand a greatest rate of incidence, there are (based on data from a single researcher) Xl distinct types of synesthesia,^{[http://www.synesthesia.info/abstracts.html]} including varieties affecting a feel of taste, smell, music, & touch.^{[http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2000/Jul/hour2_072800.html]}