Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which the automatic activation of one sense reliably triggers a perception in another. It results from greater cross-activation between sensory areas in the brain that occurs in most people. While usually separated into distinct senses such as sight, sound, taste, and touch, in those who have synesthesia, one or more of these senses may combine without ever requiring any actual effort. These connections are likely to be consistent, with the same sounds, letters, or numbers always creating the same sensations.
There are many types of synesthesia, wherein sounds can paint colors, letters or numbers can evoke a specific taste or feeling, and shapes can build smells. For example, a particular musical note might appear as some color or a number feels light or heavy. Such responses happen involuntarily and are not learned. They thereby underline that a single area in your brain never senses something alone. More accurately, it connects information in more ways to make life very unique for each human being.
People who experience synesthesia have a stronger ability to perceive things around them. When two or more senses are being stimulated together, people on the spectrum of synesthesia are able to tell the difference between sounds, colours, and textures much easier. This heightened level of perception can also have a wide variety of benefits. For instance, synesthesia can aid in remembering things because it establishes connections between senses (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile) when remembering numbers, dates, or words that are associated with colours and shapes. Furthermore, synesthesia encourages creativity by allowing your brain to form connections between ideas in innovative ways. Lastly, individuals with synesthesia are likely to notice details in their surroundings that others may overlook, and the presence of synesthesia can provide individuals with a more complete experience of their surroundings.
Every individual who experiences synesthesia perceives it differently from everyone else. For example, a person may perceive the letter “A” as red while another person may see the letter “A” as blue. This demonstrates the fact that every individual has a unique perception of their reality. To one person, what may seem normal or average may feel highly intense and unique to someone else. By experiencing the world through synesthesia, individuals are able to gain insight into the nature of perception. It shows that every person’s perception of the outside world is a personal experience. Perception is not simply a function of a brain organizing and cataloging the outside world; it is a combination of how an individual interprets and perceives the world through the combination of all their senses.
Synesthesia was found to be a result of the formation of new brain pathways during the early stages of development. The growing brain results in a large number of synapses (connections between nerve cells) formed between the senses, which in turn allows for interactions between the sense organs to occur at a high level. In most people, many of these extra synaptic branches are removed after birth during childhood; however, in the case of synesthetes, many of these branches remain, allowing for an atypical interaction among the sense organs. Through research on synesthesia, scientists can also better understand the nature of information processing in the brain and how we perceive experiences.
In general, synesthesia alters our interactions with the environment around us, enabling the blending of the senses and providing stronger perceptions, in addition to allowing unique individual experiences. Synesthesia also shows us that we will not perceive our world in the same way as anyone else will; our perception will be shaped by the activity of our brain and will not necessarily represent physical reality. Therefore, we construct and develop the way we will perceive our surroundings instead of simply replicating that which is outside of ourselves.
