Synesthesia - Blogpost 3
Hi, all.
Today I'm going to discuss something that I have never heard of until, well, yesterday. I was at my Chiropractic appointment getting a massage when I was discussing the probability of a certain genetic mutation. Why was I talking about that? That's another story. Anyway, as I was discussing this, the masseuse kept reacting as if each number I said was something magical. As I concluded that said genetic mutation probability was 1/10,000, she told me that when she hears or sees numbers, she also sees colors. Something called Synesthesia. Since I love numbers, this really intrigued me and I wanted to know more about it. So, this is me trying to understand it.
Synesthesia- defined by Dictionary.com as, "a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color. " Apparently only about 2% of the population have this type of condition. Also, there are more than one type of synesthesia. Color-graphemic synesthesia is where the alphabet and digits are perceived as bright color. Then, there's the spatial-sequence synesthesia where months, numbers, days of the week seem to occupy imaginary positions in 3D space. How fun is that?!
Imagine being able to do calculations in your head by being able to visualize each calculation within a spatial plane. The process of such calculations could be improved, and one could possibly even speed up the calculation by being able to see numbers this way. It is said that even Pythagoras believed numbers had personalities, which could be either masculine or feminine. Could this be why Pythagoras understood numbers so well and why he had such a great intelligence? Supposedly Jimi Hendrix, a famous musician and arguably the best electric guitarist in the history of music, was thought to have synesthesia. Is that why he was so creative?
Research conducted by David Brang at the University of California in San Diego, noted and referenced here, found that brain activity in those with synesthesia flowed from the "visual areas to the visual processing areas in recognizing a number, and then to the brain's color area about five to 10 milliseconds later. This did not happen in participants who do not have the condition." Also, research has shown that the sensory areas in the brain of those with synesthesia tend to have more connections for those that visualize color with numbers.
Does this mean that those with synesthesia are automatically geniuses? Not necessarily, but I believe that this contributes to a whole new approach in understanding how numbers and calculations work together. I believe that if more research was conducted, that maybe we could use this to find new mathematical concepts and prove problems that were deemed unsolvable. Is it possible to make our brain work this way without genetics playing a role? Will we some day be able to access all of what our brain could offer? Just think of the possibilities.
Any way, I am very thankful for that appointment - not only because the massage was wonderful, but I also learned something new and something very intriguing to me. I hope you found it worth researching as well!
- Angel
Hi, all.
Today I'm going to discuss something that I have never heard of until, well, yesterday. I was at my Chiropractic appointment getting a massage when I was discussing the probability of a certain genetic mutation. Why was I talking about that? That's another story. Anyway, as I was discussing this, the masseuse kept reacting as if each number I said was something magical. As I concluded that said genetic mutation probability was 1/10,000, she told me that when she hears or sees numbers, she also sees colors. Something called Synesthesia. Since I love numbers, this really intrigued me and I wanted to know more about it. So, this is me trying to understand it.
Synesthesia- defined by Dictionary.com as, "a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color. " Apparently only about 2% of the population have this type of condition. Also, there are more than one type of synesthesia. Color-graphemic synesthesia is where the alphabet and digits are perceived as bright color. Then, there's the spatial-sequence synesthesia where months, numbers, days of the week seem to occupy imaginary positions in 3D space. How fun is that?!
Imagine being able to do calculations in your head by being able to visualize each calculation within a spatial plane. The process of such calculations could be improved, and one could possibly even speed up the calculation by being able to see numbers this way. It is said that even Pythagoras believed numbers had personalities, which could be either masculine or feminine. Could this be why Pythagoras understood numbers so well and why he had such a great intelligence? Supposedly Jimi Hendrix, a famous musician and arguably the best electric guitarist in the history of music, was thought to have synesthesia. Is that why he was so creative?
Research conducted by David Brang at the University of California in San Diego, noted and referenced here, found that brain activity in those with synesthesia flowed from the "visual areas to the visual processing areas in recognizing a number, and then to the brain's color area about five to 10 milliseconds later. This did not happen in participants who do not have the condition." Also, research has shown that the sensory areas in the brain of those with synesthesia tend to have more connections for those that visualize color with numbers.
Does this mean that those with synesthesia are automatically geniuses? Not necessarily, but I believe that this contributes to a whole new approach in understanding how numbers and calculations work together. I believe that if more research was conducted, that maybe we could use this to find new mathematical concepts and prove problems that were deemed unsolvable. Is it possible to make our brain work this way without genetics playing a role? Will we some day be able to access all of what our brain could offer? Just think of the possibilities.
Any way, I am very thankful for that appointment - not only because the massage was wonderful, but I also learned something new and something very intriguing to me. I hope you found it worth researching as well!
- Angel
Fascinating. And the research you found was the perfect compliment. I'm really curious about visualizations that might communicate some of the experience. There's a few here, https://www.synesthesiatest.org/, but I haven't checked validity. Does this say anything about the nature of mathematics?
ReplyDeleteCs: 5/5 (but I'd love to know what you think about that last question.)
Synesthesia sounds like kind of a backwards "memory palace". A memory palace is when you associate something that you want to remember with a particular place in your imaginary palace. For example, my girlfriend's birthday is December 21st, so in order to remember that, I might place a painting of Santa and his reindeer playing blackjack over the hearth of my imaginary home. Synesthesia sounds like rather than doing the association yourself, your brain just kind of spews information at you that it has associated with the "thing" in question. Very interesting stuff! Is there any particular reason that numbers or words get associated with colors/spatial places as opposed to, say, pin pricks on various body parts or something?
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