Synesthesia!
When she was a child, no one believed Carol Crane when she said that letters and numbers made her see colors or that she literally felt music in her body. She stopped talking about it until a psychology professor told her that a certain Dr. Grosenbacher was looking for volunteers for an experiment on synesthesia. "What is synesthesia?" she asked. "People who think the number 5 is yellow," the professor replied. Immediately, Crane responded, "No... it's not yellow; 5 is green." Of course, she secured a spot in Grosenbacher's research.
It's always fascinating to discover that there are people who perceive the world in a completely different way than we do, to the point where it's hard to put ourselves in their shoes. Instantly, a desire arises within us to experience the world differently and to wonder if we might be missing out on something. Synesthesia has evoked such emotions in me ever since I discovered the word about twenty years ago, thanks to a classmate who unknowingly enjoyed this neurological phenomenon (it is not a disorder or a medical condition). This phenomenon occurs when the stimulation of one sense triggers an automatic and involuntary experience in another, causing both senses to be experienced simultaneously. For example, a person with synesthesia might "see" colors when listening to music, "taste" words, or "feel" textures when seeing certain numbers or letters. This crossover of senses is unique to each individual and can vary greatly in its manifestation. However, synesthetes often agree that synesthesia is wonderful, and the idea of losing it feels like losing one of their senses.
Many people are utterly surprised when they realize they are synesthetes because, up until that point, they had assumed everyone experienced the world the same way they did. This was the case with my classmate.
Examples:
At the ice cream shop, I asked the vendor what flavors they had, and she replied "tutti-frutti" in such a tone that a pile of coals seemed to come out of her mouth, and I lost my desire to buy ice cream.
I feel the sound of guitars as a breeze on my ankles. The piano presses on my chest, above my heart. And jazz hits me all over, like rain. When I see the letter A, I think of a grayish-blue color; B is pastel blue, and C is crimson. The number four has always looked tomato red to me since childhood. (Solomon Shereshevsky).
I see colors in people's names, and sometimes I also smell them. For example, many colors shine in my head when they call the class roll. I didn't tell anyone because I thought everyone experienced it too, but in fact, it's something rare. I also see colors in some numbers. Generally, even numbers are warm and odd numbers are cool. (My classmate, as my memory recalls her)
Why It Happens?
Nobody knows! But it seems to be hereditary, suggesting some genetic influence. A popular theory is that of neural pruning: excess neural connections that typically are pared away in development remain intact, and thus synesthetic neuropathways persist. Another theory suggests that neural connections between cortical regions are maintained in every person but that only some people fully experience synesthesia.
As it is more common in women than men, it was once believed that it could be related to the X chromosome. This is now rejected. Some studies have suggested that there may be a complex genetic linkage between synesthesia, autism, and savantism.
It is also more common in left-handed individuals and is often associated with extraordinary memory. Interestingly, the intensity of the experience increases during depressive periods.
Curious Websites:
There's an old website called Typatone that offers a text editor where each letter is associated with a sound, emulating a type of synesthesia. I often write my English texts on it, but not my Spanish texts since it doesn't recognize accents. At first, it seems almost like a child's toy, but after several minutes of using it and identifying the sound and color of each letter, it becomes possible to approach that synesthetic sensation by predicting the effect it will have precisely on our typing.
The creators also made the related sites Patatap and Curaturae.