What would it be like if we could hear colors, taste sound, see music come to life, literally. Synesthesia gives people the mixing of their senses, and whats really interesting is no two people with this abnormality have it exactly the same. Some will hear a taste, but they each hear a different taste, or see the music but the colors will different for everyone based on the note. While this is considered to suggest genetic predisposition, people aren't born with this because children have to learn what numbers, letters, and having a knowledge of the realization that they're senses aren't going together with the right action. So this mixing of the senses continues to develop over time, but is it really a "mix of the senses." In actuality these "mixing of the senses" is an illusion, meaning that a person is having the experience because they think that hearing color was the stimulus they had, but that is not actually the stimulus they are getting. One possibility about why this happens is that, some of the axons from one cortical area branch into another cortical area.
What is interesting is that these crossing of senses only happen one directionally and there isn't any thought that goes into it, people just already as a response have synesthetic qualities. Strangely enough although words may sound the same some people with synesthesia will taste or see different thing when word that sounds the same is spelled differently. I can't even image how overwhelming this situation with be when a word might evoke a disgusting taste or smell? How do you handle having a sense connected to a different response?
That is crazy, but honestly I would like to have synesthesia if all the colors and shapes, and flavors aren’t aversive, that way I could see what is like to taste music or the shapes its has maybe even smells. One thing that puzzles me about it, is that I though when axons connected to their sites if they connected to the wrong ones they died, so how could this happen in that theory, does this change when we are older?
That is crazy, but honestly I would like to have synesthesia if all the colors and shapes, and flavors aren’t aversive, that way I could see what is like to taste music or the shapes its has maybe even smells. One thing that puzzles me about it, is that I though when axons connected to their sites if they connected to the wrong ones they died, so how could this happen in that theory, does this change when we are older?
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