Tasting Colors and Feeling Sounds :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Tasting Colors and Feeling Sounds: Modes of Reality Each individual experiences reality in a different way. Show ten people the same picture, and each will present a different description of the scene. We all live in the same world and yet we all have different philosophies and ideas about reality and life. What do these differences tell us about objective reality? Do our senses detect the same reality, or does each person see a different picture in her head? To some extent, this difference seems to hold true. What holds significance for me does not seem important to other people. The reality I grasp is unique to me. For a small portion of people their sensory reality differs radically from the accepted norms of society (1). They suffer from a rare condition, synesthesia, which remains constant throughout their lives. Synaesthetes, instead of having their senses in concrete, separate blocks, blend different senses. Many merge their perceptions of words and numbers with different colors. In stronger cases, people see colors and shapes floating in their visual field when they hear certain musical tones. In one extreme case, a man felt specific tactile sensations when he smelled different things. Even more radically, some scientists now say all humans may have undifferentiated senses in early stages of development. This paper will explore the understanding of synesthesia in terms of sensory development. The first of four sections will establish contemporary criteria for synesthesia and will evaluate its usefulness. >From this foundation, the paper will explore the possible associative origins of their condition. It will then analyze the shared physical characteristics among synaesthetes, and the origins of synesthesia in infants. Finally, this paper will examine the neurological basis for synesthesia in adult synaesthetes. Definitions Synaesthetes experience "cross-modal" sensory associations involuntarily, such that the experience of one sense stimulates the sensations of another (1). Cytowic defines five features of clinical synesthesia (1). First, people experience synesthetic phenomena involuntarily whenever presented with a certain stimulus. The experience is not a forced association, but one the subject has felt since birth. Also, an actively-induced synesthetic perception, rather than a passive experience, is not a genuine phenomenon. Synaesthetes project the sensation into peri-personal space; they sense an actual physical quality outside of the self, not an internal sensation or aura. In addition, the triggered synesthetic perceptions remain constant over time and are unelaborated, generic perceptions. Synaesthetes report the experiences to be memorable, and emotional.