More than just alphabets: Synesthesia

I came across this very interesting study, found it very intriguing and thought could it share with everyone.

Scientific

We have people around us, and in great numbers, who actually sense and perceive more than ordinary humans do. This is a psychological-medical condition called Synesthesia which enables people to associate alphabets, numbers, words, and objects to colors and certain sensations. So it might not be wrong if I say that the color red smells like french fries, or that the letter “g” is purple in color, or perhaps that the number 7 is sour in taste. This actually is a neurological condition where senses merge to give a discreet sensation for an object.

“According to one idea, irregular sprouting of new neural connections within the brain leads to a breakdown of the boundaries that normally exist between the senses. In this view, synesthesia is the collective chatter of sensory neighbors once confined to isolation.

Another theory, based on research conducted by Daphne Maurer and Catherine Mondloch at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, suggests all infants may begin life as synesthetes. In this way of thinking, animals and humans are born with immature brains that are highly malleable. Connections between different sensory parts of the brain exists that later become pruned or blocked as an organism matures, Mondloch explained.”

A part of this study that I found very interesting was that every human being might or could experience such sensations during infancy.

In a variation of this theory, babies don’t have five distinct senses but rather one all-encompassing sense that responds to the total amount of incoming stimulation. So when a baby hears her mother’s voice, she is also seeing it and smelling it.”

Read the full article at LiveScience

Not much related to this study, but it gives way to thoughts like “Do i see a different shade of color of what everyone calls red?” I might have a different sensation of the color red when my brain processes an image… it might be yellow actually, but I might know it as red; someone might see a shade of blue but he would know it as red; and no one would be able to tell what color he sees because he will always think that everyone sees things the way he sees, and the fact that everyone calls it and knows it as red! Brain is such an amazing creation, and so is psycho-neurology. You can expect anything!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Technology . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “More than just alphabets: Synesthesia”

  1. M Junaid Khan on May 19th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    An amazing article ayesha! Thats why i love blogging as i learn new things from it and welcome on board. I am sure all our readers will learn a lot from you as i haven’t seen much writing on these subjects in pakistani blogosphere. Surely you are a positive addition to our team.

  2. Thank you Junaid for your encouraging comments. I surely will try to contribute as much as I can.

  3. Very Interesting!

    I always assume letter ‘Q’ very authoritative, (People who know me may agree with me here). Yeah ‘7′ seems quite sour and ‘Red’ is always live!

  4. really amazing and interesting article!!!

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