What is color synesthesia and how does it feel?

Synaesthesia occurs automatically, and it can neither be deliberately produced nor suppressed. This can be proved by the trouble caused to synaest

What is color synesthesia and how does it feel?

Synaesthesia occurs automatically, and it can neither be deliberately produced nor suppressed. This can be proved by the trouble caused to synaesthetes: if I see the letter "A", I will feel dark blue. Show me a red "A". I need to try to convince myself that this letter is red. Some studies are formal-in this case, synaesthetes judge the true color of letters slower than ordinary people, and this method is usually used by researchers to verify whether the subjects are really synaesthetes.

There is a fixed correlation between synaesthesia stimulation and synaesthesia perception. Whenever I see the word "day", I think it is yellow. As long as you hear the violin playing in C major, you will taste the ice cream. This is different from the association generated by triggering memory. For example, when you see the sky, you associate it with blue. For synesthetes, synesthesia and normal perception will appear at the same time. For example, "Wednesday is written in black and white", then the words "yellow feeling" and "black Wednesday" will come to mind at the same time.

A friend asked me, is the black and white printing paper in my eyes colored? Isn't that cool? But this is not the case. The words in front of me are still black, but each word obviously has a certain color. This feeling is a bit similar to the text covered with a faint translucent color layer. However, when I try to recall an article, a string of numbers or an English word, the characters in my mind have a vivid sense of color.

There are some interesting places, such as when I remember an English word, the color of its first letter will affect the color of the whole word. I like yellow, because Y is blue and black. Even if L is lemon yellow, the whole letter looks blue.

Characteristics of synaesthesia

Although a formal method for diagnosing synaesthesia has not yet been established, a doctor who leads synaesthesia research has developed some indicators. Not everyone agrees with these standards, but at least they can be used as a starting point to judge whether a person is synaesthesia. According to these indicators, synesthesia has the following characteristics: I basically agree-

1, involuntarily: That feeling doesn't need to be deliberately thought about, but synaesthesia still happened. When you see the original word "original", you can feel it is dark yellow without thinking.

2. Projected by the entity: Synesthetes don't imagine with their eyes, but really see the color itself projected outside the entity. I mentioned this feeling earlier.

3. Persistence and common: the perception of synaesthesia must be the same every time. Growing up, my 6 must be red, and my 9 must be purple, and it has never changed.

4. Unforgettable: Usually, the second derivative perception of synaesthesia is easier to remember than the first one, which I quite agree with-for example, if a synaesthete associates the name purple Lola, he will always remember that a woman's name is purple, instead of really remembering the name Lola. It often happens to me-I often confuse the surnames Zhou and Yang because they are very close in color; When I recall a friend who was a teenager, I may have forgotten his specific name, but I still remember that his name is composed of blue and green.

5. Emotion: The perception of synaesthesia may cause emotional reactions. Sometimes, I don't want to go to a restaurant because I don't like the "color matching" of its name.

Is synaesthesia a disease?

Hearing this, some friends may start to worry about me-Xu Dong, do you have congenital synesthesia? On the internet, I found that in the eyes of some synaesthetes, the color of Chinese character "green" is purple; And myself, the green in Britain is orange and the yellow is blue. This kind of experience, in some cases, does cause some troubles, but we can't think that synaesthesia is a disease. Researchers have said that it is not caused by some physical defects or obstacles, and most synaesthetes are physically and mentally healthy, including myself.

Different types of synaesthesia

Not all synaesthetes "trigger color perception when they see glyphs". Theoretically speaking, synaesthesia can occur between any two or more of the five senses, but the most common situation is synaesthesia of the visual system, just like my situation-glyphs trigger colors, and glyphs include letters, words and numbers. In addition, the most common cross-sensory system synaesthesia is usually generated by sound, and I also have this kind of synaesthesia-"My mother's voice is brown, my partner Ling's voice is dark red, Jieyu's voice is lemon yellow, and my own voice is usually light red." In the classification of synaesthesia, my two situations belong to the common "audio-visual synaesthesia", including "font → color synaesthesia, sound → color synaesthesia".

In my body, there is also a kind of "spatial order Synesthesia"-numbers, months of the year and/or days of the week can lead to accurate spatial position, 1980 is "farther" than 1990, March is in the front left, June is in the upper left, October is in the lower right and so on.

There are also some synaesthetes who have taste associations because of fonts, colors and so on. For example, when they see pink, they think of the smell of rust and so on. There is also a kind of synaesthesia that is more troublesome-"mirror synaesthesia": such friends will feel very real pain when they see the pictures of knife wounds and gunshot wounds in the movie plot. I also saw a more extreme example. A friend with this kind of synaesthesia dropped his knife when cutting chicken feet. Almost all sensory combinations may occur in synaesthesia. Some people's synaesthesia involves three or more senses, but such people are rare.

Characteristics of synaesthesia

On the other hand, in all synesthesia perception, color has the highest occurrence rate. This kind of outreach is still one-way, and no abnormality has been found so far. For me, the number six brings red to the car horn, but when I see red, the car horn won't ring in my ear.

It is also interesting that no two synaesthetes have exactly the same pattern. In Baidu, there is a post called "Synaesthesia", which focuses on many "Synaesthetes". Among them, there is a post about the corresponding relationship between statistics synaesthetes' numbers and colors, with dozens of netizens participating. So far, no two people have the same color correspondence. In other words, one synaesthete may think that "Q" is blue, while another synaesthete may think that "Q" is orange.

What's the point of synaesthesia?

But synaesthesia is an abnormal perception after all, which arouses scientists' keen interest in the neural mechanisms behind it, and understanding these mechanisms is also helpful to the study of normal perception process.

Many researchers are interested in communication because it may solve some principles of human perception. The biggest mystery of studying perception is called "system problem". No one knows how we integrate all our perceptions into a complete perception. For example, if you hold a flower, you will see its color, see its shape, smell its fragrance and feel its texture. Your brain tries to integrate these perceptions into a concept of flowers. Studying synaesthesia may help us understand how we perceive our world.

What is the reason for this synesthesia?

The easiest explanation to think of is that there are abnormal neural connections between the paths that process different sensory information. For example, when you see the word "Wednesday", the cells responsible for processing shape information in the visual system will react. Through abnormal neural connections, the cells that should only process dark yellow information are activated at the same time, and the result is dark yellow "Wednesday" on the paper. Similarly, the abnormal connection between the auditory system and the taste system brings the five flavors of Beethoven's Symphony of Destiny.

It seems that redundant nerve connections lead to synesthesia, but in fact, the nerve connections that should disappear correctly have not disappeared. Some researchers believe that these interlaced connections exist at birth, and then these connections will become accurate. In some studies, researchers believe that infants have some form of synesthesia response to sensory stimuli. These researchers believe that many children have interlaced connections, and these connections will disappear in the future. Adult synaesthetes are only caused by retaining these interlaced connections. Because the brain does not produce new nerves in the early development process, it prunes the existing nerves into a specific connection mode, so that each sensory system can work relatively independently, thus classifying information and improving efficiency.

It can be said that each of us used to be synaesthetes when we were young. At that time, my mother's voice had sweet colors and warm fragrance. For some reason, some redundant connections in synaesthetes' brains are preserved, so that they can experience their own unique feelings.

Who is easy to synesthesia?

My parents are not synaesthetes, but there are many examples in which the whole family are synaesthetes, and some of them are even very good to each other. My mother feels color when she sees numbers, and my son feels taste when he hears sounds. Scientists speculate that synaesthesia may come from heredity, but it must also be restricted and influenced by the acquired environment. For example, although I still don't understand why the numbers I see are colored, I can understand why in my mind, the sky is sky blue, the sea is sea blue, and the day is golden yellow. This must be due to the learning experience the day after tomorrow. Of course there are exceptions. For example, the moon is light blue.

Although I am male, most of the synaesthetes are women, and the ratio of male to female is about 1∶5, so synaesthesia is probably a genetic feature related to X chromosome. "Left-handed"-the proportion of left-handed people in synaesthetes is more than the average person; "Neuropathology is normal"-the IQ of synesthetes is normal, and the neuropathological examination is normal. I was relieved to see this statement at that time!

The benefits of synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is not always annoying or useless, for me, because each number represents a color, remember other people's phone numbers; Many synaesthetes also have an experience similar to mine, such as the concepts of month, week and year. In their minds, there is obvious space to look at the year, such as March in front of me, June directly above me and October below, and the corresponding color concept makes it very easy for me to remember some special days-this also has some small advantages, such as my friend's birthday and high school days.

In fact, studies have confirmed that synaesthetes usually have better spatial memory and creativity. These talents are most useful in the field of literature and art, and the wonderful artistic conception written by poets and writers is probably not groundless. Here, I have to feel why I didn't engage in art in the first place ~ Synaesthetes used to shine in the European avant-garde art world at the end of 19, and physicist Feynman and composer Liszt also occupied a place on the list of Synaesthetes.

Of course, synaesthesia will also have many troubles, such as mentioned before-I often confuse other people's surnames, and memorizing English words sometimes confuses some letters with similar colors, such as K and X, L and C.

How many synaesthetes are there?

How many synaesthetes are there in this world? The first estimate in 1883 is one in every 20 people; In the 1980 s, the view was pessimistic: there was only one in 250 thousand people; By 1996, the market is bullish. Synaesthesia researcher Byron Cohen and his colleagues predict that there will be at least one synesthete in 2000 people. A recent large-scale survey shows that one in every 30 people may have at least one synaesthesia experience, but most people don't realize that they are so different.

Of course, whether the proportion of "synaesthetes" in academic circles is really that high remains to be further confirmed. I also reconfirmed my friends around me. It's a pity that I haven't found a synaesthete like me yet. This is actually the reason why I will talk about this topic in the original form today. I also like to do a survey of tens of thousands of listeners here. If you happen to have a similar experience with me, or have other similar synaesthesia feelings, please contact me at Xudaodu Popular Science WeChat or Baidu Post Bar, or even my personal Weibo, and let's communicate together!

If you are not a synaesthete, you can test the people around you.

Read a series of random numbers between 0 and 9 at the speed of three seconds, for example: 7, 9, 4, 0, 3, 8, 2, 5, 1, 6. After reading each number, people are asked to write down these numbers and their related colors. Collect these answers as "answers1"; After a few weeks, repeat the experiment, but change the order of numbers, for example: 3, 6, 5, 9, 4, 1, 7, 0, 5, 2, 8. Collect these answers as "Answer 2".

Comparing the answer 1 with the answer 2, a person with synaesthesia will have all or most of the same numbers and color pairs in the answer 1 and the answer 2.

This experiment can also use letters instead of numbers.

Test: Synaesthesia battery is the most authoritative synesthesia test at present.

vowel

Finally, I will share a poem with you-a representative figure of early symbolism poetry. /kloc-the sonnets of Rambo, a famous French poet in the 0 th and 9 th centuries, are called vowels.

Vowels,

One day I will reveal your secret:

One, the furry black vest that flies,

A dark bay buzzes around the stench;

E, the innocence of fog and tabernacle, the peak of glacier pride,

Bai Di, the little white flowers like stars are trembling;

Me, deep red blood, beautiful lips.

Anger or remorse, smiling when drunk;

U, the period and mysterious amplitude of the blue sea,

Peace in a pasture full of livestock, that magic

Peace is engraved in the wrinkles of diligence;

Ah, the supreme horn, full of strange and harsh sound waves,

Celestial bodies and angels pass through silence;

Oh, Omega, her bright purple eyes!

Color vision also has a sense of temperature. For example, red, orange and yellow make people feel warm, so these colors are called warm colors. Blue, cyan and green can make people feel cold, so these colors are called cool colors. There is also a kind of color vision called "optical illusion", which can be accompanied by taste, touch, pain, smell or temperature perception. "Language-color synesthesia" refers to the color perception caused by some words. In daily life, people often say that "sweet voice" and "cold face" are all synaesthesia phenomena. People often use synaesthesia in painting, architecture, environmental layout, pattern design and other activities to enhance the corresponding effect; Some painters have experimented with synaesthesia, such as causing a non-visual reaction with strong tone contrast; Synaesthesia is also used as a creative means by many poets. Imagine what it would be like if sound could be perceived visually and taste could be perceived audibly. You may see colored notes, taste sweet or salty songs and touch rough music. Is this a fantasy? No, not at all.

In recent years, positron emission tomography (PET) studies have confirmed that every region of the human brain is responsible for certain sensory components, which makes sound belong to the auditory region, not the visual or olfactory region. However, sometimes when two different areas merge, you can see colored notes and hear the smell of potatoes, and you can immediately distinguish a group of the same numbers among many numbers, because these numbers can be distinguished from colors. This is synaesthesia.

* * touching * * feeling ability is available at any time, and it is impossible to control it.

classify

According to human senses, it can be divided into three categories.

Chemical (such as taste and smell), mechanical (such as touch and hearing) and optical (such as vision). Synaesthesia is also called synaesthesia. According to the statistics of scientists, there is only one person in every 2000 people in the world. But synaesthesia researchers also have a saying that it is related to genetic inheritance. The sensory knowledge of synaesthetes is partially connected, some people are connected by two senses, and a few people are connected by three senses. Synaesthesia is divided into the following categories:

Two senses

Letter-color synesthesia; Symbol-taste synaesthesia; Synesthesia (hearing voices and seeing colorful ribbons floating in the air); Sound-taste synesthesia;

Three senses

Time-space-emotion synaesthesia (note: people with this synaesthesia ability will never forget history textbooks, etc. );

An ability that is lost as people grow up.

In terms of potential, everyone can experience the feeling of synaesthesia, and the only difficulty is to raise this perception to the level of consciousness.

Richard Cytowic, an American neuroscientist, said in his book The Man Who Tasted Shapes: "We can compare feelings with TV signals. The TV signal starts from the studio, and after a long journey, it is finally transmitted to the TV. Pictures that appear on the TV screen