Can you "listen" to get the color "see" to get the music? Some say it's an artist's talent, some say it's a superpower; it's not, it's just because they have an innate ability to "synesthesia"! Today, let's take a look at what "synesthesia" is!
What is synesthesia?
"Synesthesia", discovered in 1880 by british scientist Galton, is a special perceptual behavior that has been scientifically confirmed. Statistics show that people with "synesthesia" perception account for about 5% of the world's adult population.
From a scientific point of view: "synesthesia" is a nonpathological phenomenon that represents a rare mixed sensory ability; that is, when you are stimulated by a sensory induced stimulus, it causes an immediate response of one or more senses at the same time. For example, when some people read or listen to others talking, certain words will trigger a taste response, and at the same time appear in the mouth of various tastes, this communication phenomenon between the different senses, is "synesthesia".
In britain, the media once reported an interesting example of "synesthesia": a lady used her "synesthesia" of numbers and colors to make a column of small colored pieces of paper according to the colors she saw, and whenever she went to the bank to withdraw money, she could look at the color on it to know her password.
For people without synesthesia, these letters all look black. But if you have a "letter-color" synesthesia, the letters may appear to have color.
Why do people have "synesthesia"?
Before answering this question, let's first understand the structure of the human brain: the human brain is like a Swiss Army knife, in a Swiss Army knife, there are many different tools to complete different functions, similar to the human brain, the various senses in the human brain are also responsible for different cognitive functions.
Letters → areas of color synesthesia that are cross-activated (green = letter → color synesthesia recognition area; red = visual cortex V4 color area)
For example, the occipital lobe at the back of the head deals with vision, the temporal lobe on the medial side of both ears deals with hearing, and the frontal lobe on the forehead is responsible for behavioral decision-making. When everyone is born, the conduction pathways between the various senses in the brain are actually intertwined, and as they age, these pathways will also grow, and they will become more and more distinct and single. Some people have "synesthesia" because the conduction pathways of their different senses are not separated in the process of growing up, so that the neural information in the brain that should only be transmitted to 1 sense will be transmitted to 2 or more senses at the same time when stimulated.
Some researchers believe that "synesthesia" is caused by heredity, and point out that women have the gene of "synesthesia" more commonly than men, so they think that "synesthesia" is the dominant feature of X chromosome-linked inheritance.
Some scientists believe that the production of "synesthesia" is caused by the proliferation of neural reactions between adjacent "brain regions", for example, when the neural activity of the word morphology processing "brain region" spreads to the color processing brain area, "letter-color" and "synesthesia" may occur.
It is worth noting that there is currently no consensus in the academic community on why people have "synesthesia".
The type of "synesthesia"
Some people "see" various colors when they hear a specific sound
Because human senses can form different combinations, scientists have found more than 80 kinds of "synesthesia" so far. Xiaobian here to give you a few more interesting "synesthesia":
- Letter-color synesthesia: This refers to when people see a particular number or letter, they will see a certain color at the same time.
- Color vision: This is a kind of "synesthesia" of sound and color, which means that when some people hear a certain sound or music of daily life, they will see different colors at the same time, and some people can even see notes of different colors.
- Vocabulary— taste synesthesia: Refers to the perception of certain senses of smell or taste when a person who hears certain words. For example, when you hear "football", you will feel the taste of "chocolate" in your mouth.
What is synesthesia used for?
The researchers found that it was widely believed that sweetness should be paired with low-frequency, soft sounds, and that the shape should also be round. Therefore, if you want to sell sweet food, you should give it a low-frequency and soft name, and the corresponding product LOGO and packaging should also appear round. On the contrary, if you are selling sour food, you should help it have a high-frequency and sharp name, and the corresponding product LOGO and packaging should also show a sharp shape.
By the way, do you have "synaesthetes" around you?
This article is the selected work of the second science popularization essay contest in Zhengzhou
Author: Yang Chi
Opinions are solely those of the author and do not represent the position of this number