slowly have i realized that i am blessed with a perceptual experience with interesting symptoms and no side effects. several years ago i noticed that, while i watched basketball through a window, my mind was creating noises to accompany the bouncing of the ball that i saw. at some point, i learned the word for this. i think it was when one of my sister's described how numbers have color, for her.
What i learned today is that the word synesthesia describes the class of conditions, of which my visual-aural and my sister's number-color experiences are distinct types. My favorite encyclopedia describes the latter as "Grapheme-color synesthesia" but doesn't have such a fancy name for my variant. That encyclopedia has interesting links at the end.
The bouncing ball will test whether you have my variant. I experience it a lot while using computers, because there are often visual events with no sound, either in the user interface or in banner-ads on web pages. Another instance is watching the turn-signal of the car in front of me at a stop light.
It's a pretty neat condition. And since it "runs strongly in families", i'm curious to know whether my other relatives have variants. feel free to post a comment or email me (even if you're not a relative...). Maybe at the next family reunion, we can have a volleyball match between the dyslexics and the synesthetes.
7 comments:
Okay, so freaky. After reading the Wikipedia article, I realize that I also have number form synesthia (the calendar year is a circle in my head), and the color examples they give- A is red, O is white, and S is yellow- are the same as the way I see them. Weird.
--Kate
i can hear that ball bouncing. in fact, it was bouncing all loud and stuff while i was trying to read and it was annoying me.
i tested dad, my mom, avery, and lem on the two versions of synesthesia on your blog. lem, dad, and my mom saw no colors nor heard the ball bounce, but avery can hear the ball bounce. thought you might be interested.
Well, it's probably genetic, and, using the data so far provided, I'm probably the genetic carrier but it's recessive or not expressed in me. I guess I'm jealous, although it could be pretty distracting.
Dad
Sorry to take so long to chime in. I don't have it, at least not more than a wisp, but I definitely see letters in color, at least the first ones. A is red, B blue, C green, D yellow, F purple, G brown, etc. But here's a cool link for you: http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/2007/03/a_mangoshaped_s.html
The blog is good, all about new kids' and YA books, and this post is relevant to your query.
Hmm, I failed those tests. If I don't have synesthesia, does that mean I'm doomed as an artist and a musician?
I don't seem to have an email address for you, so thought I'd contact you this way. Thought you might be interested in this- http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php/archives/2007/06/10/synesthesia/
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