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Good afternoon, my dear readers! Today we will talk about such an interesting phenomenon as synesthesia in psychology. This phenomenon occurs in about 4% of the population. What is it, the symptoms of determining the phenomenon, whether it helps to live or, on the contrary, interferes — let’s look at everything in order.
First, do not confuse the concepts of synesthesia and synergy.
Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which several human senses of perception fuse together. These people are called synesthetes. They can not only hear the sounds of music, but also feel them, smell them, and see them.
Origin theories
To date, the mechanism of this phenomenon has not been clearly established. There are several theories:
congenital feature
According to her, this is an innate quality of a person, which is inherited. Initially, the cause of its occurrence in an individual was a gene mutation.
The most striking examples of inherited synesthesia are the color perception of Nabokov’s letters, which he inherited from his mother. He then passed it on to his son.
It should be noted that only the general mechanism is transmitted, but not the associative series. That is, if the mother associated some letters with specific colors, then this does not mean at all that her son will associate the same letters with the same colors.
Cross-activation model
Between the two adjacent areas of our brain, which are responsible for different feelings, there is an interaction. For example, the area responsible for the perception of geometric shapes falls into cooperation with the area that perceives sound. As a result, abnormal connections arise between neurons, which provokes the malfunctioning of some of them.
All children are synesthetes
According to this theory, there is a hypothetical opinion that in the brain of infants there are «neural bridges» that maintain active connections between the organs responsible for the formation of sensations. If this version is considered reliable, then sounds, three-dimensional forms and also colors in the perception of a small child are merged into a single disordered whole. With age, such connections are amenable to destruction, as a result of which feelings become more contrasting and separate. But a small number of people retain such connections in the brain for life.
Diagnostics
How to determine whether a person has this gift or not? Although this phenomenon is classified by some as a class of neuropsychiatric diseases, it is not included in the list of disorders that interfere with a person’s usual life. This is most likely a different perception of the world from others.
The simplest option for initial testing is to repeatedly study the perception of colors over a long period of time and analyze the results.
At the moment, this phenomenon is fruitfully studied by a large number of scientists.
How to become a synesthete?
Many people ask the question: “How to develop synesthesia?”. It is worth noting that one day it is impossible to stop smelling certain words or the colors of sounds. Our willpower does not have such capabilities. Therefore, it is also impossible to become the owner of such a phenomenon at will.
But medicine is familiar with cases when, due to a violation of some processes in the nervous system, a person acquired this kind of ability. The most famous story of this kind to a wide audience happened to a 45-year-old resident of Toronto. A few months after the stroke, the man began to feel annoyed by the words that were written in one particular color.
He began to associate blue colors with the smell of berries. Initially, the man was frightened and turned to the doctors. As a result of an MRI scan, it was found that the brain that suffered after an attack was trying to restore its usual physiological state. In the process, intensely disordered connections were formed between individual nerve cells of the brain.
When conducting research at the Scottish University, it was found that synesthetes have a clearer associative memory. Moreover, such associative connections are formed in them at the level of neurons. Therefore, they are much stronger than conditional, invented in an arbitrary way.
The most common types of synesthesia are:
- music is a word;
- music — taste;
- color — taste;
- number — color — word.
For some people, this interaction of sensations may seem like a gift that helps to learn and work better. Others understand that such mixed feelings lead to additional dispersion of attention. Which can occur arbitrarily at the most inopportune moment for this, for example, in an exam.
Each of the few attempts scientists have made to artificially develop synesthesia to this day has failed. Most of them agree that the basis of phenomenality is precisely the factor of spontaneity, which is simply absent with the artificial development of such perception.
What stimulates the development of synesthesia?
Synesthesia manifests itself in certain moments of life, and not all the time. The frequency of such occurrences directly depends on the complex of stimuli causing it. It is worth noting that if music causes synesthesia in a person, then by eliminating all extraneous noise and listening to classical melodies in a constant mode, you can never experience this feeling again. Realism in such moments will be sorely lacking.
In other situations, even against our will, we will not be able to avoid such synesthetic sensations. For example, if associative memory fixes the presence of one of the components (for example, the sound of a train), then you will not be able to get rid of this phenomenon. After all, we are talking about stimuli-triggers.
Synesthesia — a gift or a hindrance?
Synesthesia is an endogenous phenomenon, i.e. process formed by internal mechanisms. She appears in childhood. Naturally, at this age, the essence of different types of sensations is simply not formed by the child. Even the simplest, as it may initially seem, type of synesthesia is a kind of mirror image of the complex mechanisms of the brain.
People with these abilities can go through life without realizing their unique gift.
Speaking about whether this is a gift or a hindrance, many researchers of this issue tend to the first option. After all, most of us are not synesthetes. The gifted can keep in mind and, if necessary, quickly retrieve accurate data. It’s all thanks to these additional neural connections.
Conclusion
Dear readers! If you have noticed similar phenomena before yourself and did not know if this is the norm or a pathology, do not worry — everything is in order with you! You may have synesthesia.
As we have already said, this is not a pathology, but a wonderful feature. And if you use it correctly, you can achieve massive results.
And in order to find out if you are a synesthete, it is enough just to compare your perception with the perception of other people — relatives, friends or acquaintances. If certain stimulants cause you to react differently from others, then you are a synesthete. Accordingly, you have an additional advantage over the rest.
In conclusion, I recommend that you read an article about the Stendhal syndrome and the amazing power of art.
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