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katoagogo
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 02:53 am |
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So on Sunday night I'm doing my reading for my course called Theatre, Performance, and the Cognitive Neurosciences (which happens to be one of my favorite combos) -- and my jaw drops. Literally.
The topis we'll be discussing in class is Synesthesia, and this is my first time reading about it. Turns out there are maybe over 100 types -- and it turns out I experience this phenonmenon. Jaw. Drops. Whoa.
Here's a little bit lifted from wikipedia:
Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek σύν (syn), meaning "with," and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), meaning "sensation"'—is a neurologically-based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise).
While cross-sensory metaphors (e.g., "loud shirt", "bitter wind" or "prickly laugh") are sometimes described as "synesthetic", true neurological synesthesia is involuntary. It is estimated that synesthesia could possibly be as prevalent as 1 in 23 persons across its range of variants (Simner et al. 2006). Synesthesia runs strongly in families, but the precise mode of inheritance has yet to be ascertained. [...]
Although sometimes spoken of as a "neurological condition", synesthesia is not listed in either the DSM-IV or the ICD classifications, since it does not, in general, interfere with normal daily functioning. Indeed most synesthetes report that their experiences are neutral, or even pleasant (Day 2005). Rather, like color blindness or perfect pitch, synesthesia is a difference in perceptual experience and the term "neurological" simply reflects the brain basis of this perceptual difference. To date, no research has demonstrated a consistent association between synesthetic experience and other neurological or psychiatric conditions, although this is an active area of research
here's the link to read more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
The one that I have always experienced is the ordinal linguistic personification, and on Monday I learned
A. it has a name
and
B. that most people do not perceive the alphabet, the days of the week, the months of the year, or guitar chords the way that I do.
So I'm wondering if there are others here who experience some form of synesthesia -- and do you think it influences your writing?
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Airtop
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 09:19 am |
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I didn't know that was actually called something!!
I do the thing with the Alphabet, and with my years. I never knew other people didn't do that.
I think it helps me with the continuity of my shows. I can picture the journey from above.
THanx for the info!
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katoagogo
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 03:42 pm |
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Kinda crazy finding out there's not only a name for it -- but a whole lotta research being done about it.
And then to realize that not everybody has this relationship to letters and things ...
I'm still taking it all in.
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Crabbit
Member
| Joined: | Tue Mar 11th, 2008 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 8 |
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 04:52 pm |
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I saw something on TV once about an autistic man who said he sees Pi as a beautiful mountain range, but I didn't realise there were common varieties of this. It must be really weird for you to realise you experience something differently from others, it makes you question all sorts of things you once took for granted.
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Paddy
Moderator
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 05:09 pm |
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Many artists - especially visual artists, have/had synesthasia. I belive Gustav Klimt is a good example. I have this to a degree, mostly tasting textures and hearing smells... I wrote a play about two vampires...I think they all have it, which is why they are so intriguing.
I did a challenge...poetry...ah....hm....good plan. Now you have to go look at what I'm going to post at the playwright's gym.
Paddy
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katoagogo
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 06:47 pm |
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Paddy --
For class we read excerpts from THE MAN WHO TASTED SHAPES. I plan to read the whole thing over the summer. Have you read that one?
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