Synesthesia

This is really just a personal anecdote, but I thought I’d share this interesting experience with you all (out of class time). My friend came over last night to introduce me to his younger brother. While looking at the map of Europe on my wall, they started arguing about what color different countries and states were – this seemed odd until they explained to me that they both have synesthesia!

Imagine my delight! I started questioning them about their conditions, associations, family history, and how their perceptual experiences compared to each other. They have both had strong color associations with letters, words, states, and countries (among other things) for as long as they can remember. Neither of their parents have synesthesia. Here are some interesting things I learned from them.

They experience these colors as strong associations, but they can suppress them to a certain degree. For example, letters do not have distracting colors when they are reading.

When they were younger, they just assumed that other people had the same perceptual experiences. In fact, they thought it was rather strange that I do not perceive certain states as certain colors.

California is yellow. Maine is pink (according to one) or purple (according to the other).

My name is green (Raven, mostly because the first letter is R).

My friend’s brother described the color as analogous to a toy some of you might know: the fluid-filled plastic tubes that you can squeeze in your hands and slide around. He said that the colors of letters are like the glow of that liquid with silver glitter inside.

My friend also sees numbers on a continuum, increasing from East to West and moving up to the thousands.

He also has a mental calendar, so when someone mentions a particular month, he sees the calendar months in a visual scene. He also gets certain months confused because they have the same color. For example, June and July share a color, although June is a lighter shade of brown. August and September are also different shades of blue.