While research is yet to answer that, experts believe that synesthesia and autism share a number of biological similarities for instance, they’re both associated with greater local connectivity within the same or adjacent brain areas, rather than global connectivity between distant parts of the brain. Interestingly, recent research has also found synesthesia often co-occurring with autism while synesthesia is experienced by just 2-4% of the general population, it is experienced by as many as 20% of people on the autism spectrum, leading experts to wonder whether synesthesia may have a role to play in the sensory overload individuals on the spectrum experience. Yet this doesn’t explain why some people retain their synesthesia well into adulthood, and throughout their lives. Some scientists also believe that everyone is born synesthetic, with their sensory wires entangled, but as they grow up, the senses become more segregated. “Neurons and synapses that are ‘supposed’ to be contained within one sensory system cross to another sensory system,” a University of Washington resource on synesthesia reads. The causes of synesthesia remain largely unknown, but some scientists hypothesize it could be a result of crossed wiring in the brain. Why We See Swirling Colors When Our Eyes Are Closed This has led researchers to hypothesize that synesthesia could be linked to the X-chromosome. Synesthesia occurs more commonly in women (that is, people with an XX sex chromosome pair for the purposes of this article) than in men (that is, people with an XY sex chromosome pair), although studies differ on how wide this gap is. Perhaps, they think that’s how everyone experiences the world, or they simply don’t bring it up because they don’t want to be mocked, or laughed at, for their unusual abilities. Research suggests that the number of people with synesthesia may be anywhere between 1 in 200 to 1 in 100,000, and people with the condition may not be aware they are synesthetes because they may not be aware of what synesthesia is, despite experiencing it. While most of the scientific community is leaning towards the theory that synesthetes are born with the condition, some experts do believe that it can develop early in childhood too, and occasionally, even later. Experts note there are at least 73 different forms of synesthesia.Ī person with a life-long history of synesthesia is called a synesthete, and the sensory associations formed by their brains remain consistent throughout their lives - for instance, a synesthete will always associate the same color with the same sound. People with grapheme-color synesthesia associate numbers or letters of the alphabet with colors for people with chromesthesia, everyday sounds or musical notes can trigger visuals of colors for people with auditory-tactile synesthesia, different sounds can trigger different physical sensations in the body for people with lexical-gustatory synesthesia, different words evoke different tastes and people with ordinal linguistic personification associate numbers, letters of the alphabet, or names of weeks and months with different personalities or genders.īut this is just a sampling.
Synesthesia is a neurological condition, which manifests as a perceptual phenomenon in a variety of forms. But for people with synesthesia, this blending together of sensory perceptions is an everyday experience. But other stimulants, like cannabis, alcohol, and even caffeine, have also been shown to cause temporary synesthesia.What would it be like to hear colors, smell words, feel sounds, and taste shapes? It’s an exotic thought that might have one assuming psychedelic drugs are involved. Mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD have been studied for their ability to induce this phenomenon. The use of psychedelic drugs can heighten and connect your sensory experiences. Some substances can cause you to temporarily experience synesthesia.
That’s why researchers believe that people who have synesthesia have a high level of interconnectedness between the parts of the brain that are tied to sensory stimulus. So not only will your primary visual cortex be stimulated by the color, your parietal lobe, which tells you what something tastes like, is stimulated, too. If you have synesthesia, you may also feel like you can taste the color of the wall while you look at it. Looking at a bright neon yellow wall, for example, will light up the primary visual cortex, at the rear of your brain. Research indicates that synesthesia can be genetically inherited.Įach one of your five senses stimulate a different area of your brain. People who experience synesthesia are usually born with it or develop it very early in childhood.
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