SYNESTHESIA

The idea that the senses can short-circuit and that we can see
sounds and taste shapes is inherently fascinating, strains our common
sense, and appeals to our belief in magic
- Richard Cytowic, 1989
Synesthesia is the involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association. That is,
the stimulation of one sensory modality reliably causes a perception in one or more different
senses (Cytowic, 1995). It is a brain condition in which a person briefly and involuntarily
experiences sensory connections between two or more seemingly unrelated experiences, and is
the simultaneous perception of different senses. Thus it is an anomalous blending of the senses in
which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality.
Synesthesia is derived from the Greek words, syn meaning together and aisthsis meaning
perception thus meaning "to perceive together". People who report such experiences are known
as synesthetes. Synesthetes hear colors, feel sounds and taste shapes. Recently, difficulties have
been recognized in finding an adequate definition of synesthesia, as many different phenomena
have been covered by this term and in many cases the term synesthesia ("union of senses")
seems
to be a misnomer. A more accurate term for the phenomenon has been suggested - ideasthesia.
However, ambiguity surrounds almost every aspect of research related to synesthesia, leaving
great avenues open for future research.An extremely important characteristic of this curious
condition is that true neurological synesthesia is involuntary.Synesthesia is involuntary but
elicited. It is a passive experience that happens to someone. It is unsupressable, but elicited by a
stimulus that is usually identified without difficulty. It cannot be conjured up or dismissed at
will, although circumstances of attention and distraction may make the experience seem more or
less vivid. Also, synesthesia is considered to be unidirectional: thinking of the number 5 elicits
the perception of orange. But seeing orange does not always lead to an association to the number
5.
There is confusion about the word synesthesia given that it has been used over a 300year period to describe vastly different things. Thus, there have been various attempts to also
define what synesthesia is not. Synesthesia is not metaphoric language. If it were, one would
expect the associations to change according to context rather than be stable as they are over a
lifetime. Synesthesia is also not poetry, even though synesthetic-like associations are widely
found in literary tropes. Poets commonly fuse different senses and employ cross-sensory
adjectives to induce a compound aesthetic experience. Another thing synesthesia is not is vivid
imagination. What synesthetes see is not pictorial and elaborate but rather simple and
elementary. For example, a common type of synesthesia is colored hearing, or the activation of
color, shape, and movement by everyday environmental sounds, voices, and, especially, music.
For synesthetes, these sounds trigger an experience something like fireworks: colored
movingshapes that rise into existence then fade away. That is their perceptual reality (Cytowic &
Eagleman, 2009). Synesthesia may also be confused with drug-induced hallucinations. However,
what makes synesthesia different from drug-induced hallucinations is that synesthetic sensations
are highly consistent: for particular synesthetes, the note F is always a reddish shade of rust, a 3
is always pink or truck is always blue, and this is constant across the lifespan.
Looking at the history of synesthesia it is surprising to note that synesthesia has been
known to medicine for almost three hundred years. In the 1880s, Francis Galton described a
condition in which persons...almost invariably think of numerals in visual imagery and has
contributed greatly to what is known today about synesthesia. After interest peaked between
1860 and 1930, it was forgotten, remaining unexplained not for lack of trying, but simply

because psychology and neurology were premature sciences. Synesthesia debuted in the
scientific literature over a century ago however, because of a lack of tests to verify the
phenomenon, its study did not gain momentum until the development of tests for verifying and
quantifying the phenomenon (Asher et al., 2006; Baron-Cohen et al., 1996; Eagleman, Kagan,
Nelson, Sagaram, &Sarma, 2007; as cited in Novich, Cheng &Eagleman, 2011) Synesthesia
attracted serious attention in art, music, literature, linguistics, natural philosophy, and theosophy.
Two books were published: L'AuditionColoreby Suarez de Mendoza in 1890 and Das
Farbenhren und der synsthetischeFaktor der Wahrnehmungby Argelander in 1927. Most
accounts emphasized colored hearing, the most common form of synesthesia. By mid-nineteenth
century synesthesia had intrigued an art movement that sought sensory fusion, and a union of the
senses appeared more and more frequently as an idea. Multimodal concerts of music and light
(son et lumiere), sometimes including odor, were popular and often featured color organs,
keyboards that controlled colored lights as well as musical notes, however such deliberate
contrivances are qualitatively different from the involuntary experiences that attribute
synesthesia. It is only with the refinement in technology that synesthesia was understood better,
however our understanding even today remains inadequate with tremendous room for more
discoveries.
The prevalence of synesthesia is astoundingly much more than one would imagine. The
estimated occurrence of synesthesia ranges from rarer than one in 20,000 to as prevalent as one
in 200. Some years ago the general idea existed that synesthesia was something very special and
rare. Newer research showed contradictory result. Nowadays it is estimated that around 5% up to
10% of people could have at least one form of synesthesia. Despite of having synesthesia, many
synesthetes are not aware of that. This is because of the fact, that synesthesia is something subtle
and requires attention. If one is not aware of it, one won't perceive it. In 1880, Sir Francis Galton
assumed the prevalence of synesthesia to be 1 in 20 based on his observations of individuals with
visualized numerals. His contemporaries came up with similar estimates ranging from 1 in 4 to
1 in 10. In 1993, Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues (as cited in Cytowic & Eagleman, 2009) in
London surveyed two nonrandom populations and came up with estimates of 1 in 2,000 and 1 in
2,500. In Germany, Emrich and colleagues estimated synesthesia to occur in between 1 in
300and 1 in 700 individuals, whereas in the United States, Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard
put
the prevalence at 1 in 200 based on classroom surveys. An interesting study by Julia Simner and
colleagues in Edinburgh tested two populations, one at a university and another visiting a large
science museum. The results confirmed that synesthesia is far more common than originally
assumed: 1 in 23 for any type of synesthesia, and 1 in 90 for grapheme - color synesthesia. It was
also determined that the most common type of synesthesia was experiencing color for days of
the
week, followed by grapheme - color synesthesia. Previously, the latter was widely believed to be
the most common manifestation (Cytowic & Eagleman, 2009). It has also been found that
women synesthetes predominate. In the U.S. a ratio of 3:1 has been reported (Cytowic, 1989; as
cited in Cytowic, 1995), while in the U.K. Baron-Cohen et al. (1993; as cited in Cytowic, 1995)
found a female ratio of 8:1.
Synesthesia can come in many different forms and involve senses like touch, taste, and
even smell. Thus, there are many different types of synesthesia. Synesthesia can manifest itself
in many different forms, as it involves different parts of the human brain. It can range from
tasting colors to smelling sounds. Synesthesia can occur between any two senses or perceptual
modes. If we take into account only the five basic senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch)
and imagine pairings, we already have twenty different types of synesthesia. In reality, there are

many more possibilities and theoretically there can be as many types of synesthesia as there can
be pairings of all the senses. However, some forms of synesthesia are more common than others.
The most common form is that of Grapheme-Color Synesthesia where a person who experiences
this may associate/see individual letters or numbers with a specific color. Usually, two people
wont report the same color for letters and numbers. However, studies have shown that many
synesthetes will see some letters the same way (for example, A is likely to be red). Sound-toColor Synesthesia, also called Chromesthesia, is when sound triggers the visualization of
colored, generic shapes. For certain people, the stimuli are limited, and only a few types of
sounds will trigger a perception. However, there are cases wherein many different sounds trigger
color visualizations. Usually, the perceived colors appear in generic shapes squares, circles,
etc. Number-Form Synesthesia is when a number form is essentially a mental map that consists
of numbers. When a person with number-form synesthesia thinks about numbers, a number map
is involuntarily visualized. It is sometimes suggested that the number forms are a product of
cross-activation between regions in the parietal lobe a part of the brain that is involved in
numerical and spatial cognition. Personification, also known as ordinal-linguistic personification,
or OLP, is when an individual who experiences this will associate ordered sequences with
various personalities. Ordered sequences may include numbers, letters, months and so on. For
example, a person with OLP may look at the letter A and think in his mind that A is a rude
letter. Lexical-gustatory synesthesia is one of the rarer synesthesia types. Synesthetes who
experience this kind of synesthesia evoke different kinds of tastes when they hear certain words
or phonemes. According to research, associations between the words and what a synesthete is
able taste are constrained by tastes he or she has experienced early in life. For example, James
Wannerton, a synesthete, has no synesthetic experiences of coffee or curry, even though
heconsumes them regularly as an adult. Conversely, he tastes certain breakfast cereals and
candies
that are no longer sold. The condition known as mirror-touch synesthesia was described for the
first time only two years ago. People with this type of synesthesia experience tactile sensations
when they observe another person being touched. Banissyand Ward (2005) provide evidence for
the existence of this type of synesthesia and show that it correlates with heightened empathic
ability.Watching another human being touched (relative to an object being touched) activates the
primary and secondary somatosensory cortex along with premotor and superior temporal
regions.
These systems may be crucial for empathy because they enable the observer to simulate
anothers experience by activating the same brain areas that are active when the observer
experiences the same emotion or state. An interesting study by Novich, Cheng andEagleman
(2011) explained that synesthesia is an umbrella term that encompasses several distinct groups
with independent probabilities of expression andthat the synesthesia types cluster into distinct
groups. They identified various clusters or groups of the synesthesia types and claimed that a
person possessing more than one type of synesthesia is more likely to have types that belong in
the same cluster, rather than different clusters.
One important controversy that arises in the discussion of synesthesia is the question of
whether synesthesia is the neuropsychological concern of whether the condition is perceptual or
cognitive. However, most researchers now agree that it is a sensory phenomenon caused as a
result of neurological differences among synesthetes and nonsynesthetes.
One explanation for synesthesia is that synesthesia has a genetic basis. Galton (1880; as
cited in Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001) first noticed that many of his subjects had relatives
who were also synesthetic. More recently, Baron-Cohen et al. (1996) conducted a more formal
survey to determine the familiality of synesthesia. Family studies show that the trait seems to be

passed along the X-chromosome, and that it may be dominant (Bailey & Johnson, 1997; as cited
in Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). Synesthesia runs in families in a pattern consistent with
either autosomal or x-linked dominant transmission, i.e. either sex parent can pass the trait to
either sex child, and affected individuals appear in more than one generation of a pedigree, and
multiple affected children can occur in the same generation. (Cytowic, 1995). Other recent
findings, including a pair of monozygotic twins who were discordant for synesthesia (Smilek et
al., 2002; as cited in Hubbard &Ramachandran, 2005) and data suggesting that synesthesia can
skip generations (Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2003; as cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005)
are hard to reconcile with dominant transmission. In sum, recent data suggest that the genetic
mechanisms underlying synesthesia may be more complex than the straightforward X-linked
dominant account proposed by early researchers.
There are a number of theories which seek to explain synesthesia in terms of
neurobiological mechanisms. One of the theories; i.e. The Cross-Activation Hypothesis holds
that synesthetes have unusual connections between different sensory regions of the
cerebralcortex, perhaps because a failure to prune improper, under-used or redundant synaptic
connections during development of the nervous system. Thus, stimuli entering one sensory
system will generate activity in another sensory system, and activity in the latter system will also
evoke sensations in the synesthete, despite an absence of the appropriate stimuli for that
modality. Proof for this hypothesis was provided by Paulesu et al. (1995; as cited in
Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001) who conducted a PET study in which word
coloursynaesthetes were presented with pure tones or single words and regional cerebral blood
flow (rCBF) measurements were taken. A slightly different approach was adopted by Cytowic
(1995) who claims that synesthesia depends only on the left-brain hemisphere and is
accompanied by large metabolic shifts away from the neocortex that result in relatively enhanced
limbic expression. Thus, the hippocampus is an important and probably obligate node in
whatever neural structures generate the synesthetic experience.
According to the other theory i.e. the Disinhibition Hypothesis, the differences between the
brains of synesthetes and non-synesthetes are functional and not anatomical. This theory holds
that synesthesia occurs because of impaired inhibition between the cortical circuits involved,
such that there is abnormal feedback to a region of the brain involved in processing colour
information (area v4 in the inferior temporal gyrus) from a region at the junction of the temporal,
paeen these two parts of the brain may underly the
extraordinary sensory experiences that occur in grapheme-colour synesthesia.One piece of
evidence in favor of the long-range model comes from the study of a patient, PH, who became
blind at the age of 40 because of retinitis pigmentosa (Armel& Ramachandran, 1999; as cited in
Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005). After a period of 2 years of blindness, PH began reporting
that tactile stimuli elicited the subjective impression of seeing visual movement. Interestingly,
the intensity of the tactile stimulation required to induce synesthetic photisms was greater when
his hand was held in front of his face than when it was held behind his face, suggesting some sort
of top-down multisensory activation, perhaps mediated by parietal structures. Another piece of
evidence in favor of the disinhibited feedback theory is that at least some people report
synesthetic experiences while under the influence of psychedelics (Shanon, 2002; as cited in
Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005).It has also been proposed that a one size fits all approach
may fail to capture the
variability in synesthetic experiences. Different neural theories have focused on different types
of synesthesia, with the local cross-activation theory focusing on grapheme - color synesthesia,
whereas the feedback models have focused on word-color and tone-color synesthesia. It is quite
likely, given that graphemes, phonemes, music, and colors are processed by different brain

regions, that forms of synesthesia have different architectural substrates. However, the fact that
synesthetes within the same family may inherit different forms of synesthesia (Ward &Simner,
2005; as cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005) suggests that commonneurophysiological
mechanisms may be shared across different forms of synesthesia.
A number of cognitive studies have been carried out as well, following the pattern of a test
retest method to account for the consistency among the reports of synesthetic experiences
among subjects. Studies of consistency are hence, extremely useful in differentiating between
synesthetes and nonsynesthetes. With modified Stroop interference paradigms, research has
shown that synesthesia is automatic and perhaps obligatory. In the synesthetic Stroop
paradigm, graphemes are presented in either congruent or incongruent ink colors for each
synesthete. For a synesthete who sees 7 as yellow, a 7 presented in yellow would be congruent,
and a 7 presented in any other color would be incongruent. The consistent finding that
synesthetes are slower in the incongruent condition than in the congruent condition demonstrates
that synesthetic colors are automatic and not under voluntary control. Subsequent research has
shown that synesthetic Stroop interference can be induced simply by thinking about or imagining
the eliciting stimulus when it is the solution to a math problem (Dixon et al., 2000; Jansari et al.,
2005; as cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005) and can be eliminated by masking the target
grapheme before presenting a colored grapheme (Mattingley et al., 2001; as cited in Hubbard &
Ramachandran, 2005).
Although there have been numerous neuro-imaging studies(mainly using fMRI) of
synesthesia, they have yielded somewhat inconsistent results. Using PET, Paulesu et al. (1995; as
cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005) found that areas of the posterior-inferior temporal
cortex and parieto-occipital junctionbut not early visual areas V1, V2, or V4 -were activated
during word listening more than during tone listening in synesthetic subjects, but not in controls.
In a follow-up fMRI study, Nunn et al. (2002; as cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005)
tested six female, right-handed, word-color synesthetes and six matched nonsynesthetes. They
reported that regions of the brain involved in the processing of colors (V4/V8) were more active
when word-color synesthetes heard spoken words than when they listened to tones, but not
earlier visual areas such as V1 or V2. A case study of a word-color synesthete reports activation
of anatomically defined V1 but the authors were unable to determine if V4 was active (Aleman
et al., 2001; as cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2005). Yet another recent study failed to find
increased activation in the fusiform gyrus during synesthetic experiences but did find enhanced
activity in the intraparietal sulcus (Weiss et al., 2005; as cited in Hubbard & Ramachandran,
2005), a region thought to be crucial for binding of color and form (Robertson, 2003; as cited
inHubbard & Ramachandran, 2005). Thus, the results are inconclusive on the true cause of
synesthesia; however, pioneering work has been done on the field to provide the framework for
future research.
Often nonsynesthetes imagine that sensing nonpresent colors, textures, and
configurations must somehow be a burden. Doesnt it drive them crazy having
to cope with all the extra bits? they ask. But this is no different than a blind
person telling you, Oh you poor thing. Everywhere you look youre always
seeing something. Doesnt it drive you crazy always having to see everything?
Of course not, because seeing is normal to us and constitutes what we accept as
reality. Synesthetes simply have a different texture of reality.
Cytowic & Eagleman (2009)
References
Books
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Cytowic, R. E. (2002). Synesthesia: A union of the senses. The MIT Press.

Cytowic, R. E., & Eagleman, D. (2009). Wednesday is indigo blue: Discovering the
brain of synesthesia. The MIT Press.
Zillmer, E., Spiers, M., & Culbertson, W. C. (2008). Principles of
neuropsychology. CengageBrain. com.
Journal Articles
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Banissy, M. J., & Ward, J. (2007). Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with

empathy. Nature neuroscience, 10(7), 815-816.
Cytowic, R. E. (1995). Synesthesia: Phenomenology and neuropsychology. Psyche,
2(10), 2-10.
Grossenbacher, P.G.; Lovelace, C.T. (2001), "Mechanisms of synesthesia:
cognitive and physiological constraints", Trends in Cognitive Sciences5 (1): 3641
[Abstract Only]
Hubbard, E. M., & Ramachandran, V. S. (2005). Neurocognitive mechanisms of
synesthesia. Neuron, 48(3), 509-520.
Novich, S., Cheng, S., & Eagleman, D. M. (2011). Is synaesthesia one condition or
many? A largescale analysis reveals subgroups. Journal of neuropsychology, 5(2),
353-371.
Ramachandran, V. S., & Hubbard, E. M. (2001). Synaesthesia--a window into
perception, thought and language. Journal of consciousness studies, 8(12), 3-34.Websites
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http://synaesthesia.com/en/information/einfuhrung/
http://www.synesthesiatest.org/types-of-synesthesia
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-synesthesia
http://www.unc.edu/~parunapu/Assign3
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/09/04/the-neuropsychology-ofsynaest/
-Aakankshi Javeri