Synesthesia. Apparently I Have It.

1 is Red, 2 is Light Blue, 3 is Light Pink, 4 is Light Purple, 5 is Light Green, 6 is Red, 7 is Yellow, 8 is Orange, 9 is Red, 10 is Black, 11 is White.

Artist Kerry Hirth paints from the perspective of her condition of Synesthsia.

I never thought the fact that I associate numbers with colors was an odd concept. Just yesterday I was speaking to a friend about this and she exclaimed, "ooooo, that number/color association has a name!" I looked it up and found that there is a neurological condition called Synesthesia. 

I've learned that there are various forms of Synesthesia and the type that connects numbers and colors (and/or letters) is called Grapheme Color Synesthesia.

Many who experience Synesthesia are left handed women. I am a left handed woman.

There are various tests and batteries that can assist in determining if a person has Synesthesia. The Stroop is a popular test which presents different words in different colors. For example the word Blue may be presented in the color (pink) Blue. The individual taking the test must read the words in the colors they are presented. The time in which it takes the participant to answer which color it is written in, is recorded. Those with Synesthesia will take longer answering than non-Synesthetics.

According to a 2007 article from Associated Content,  "One theory suggests that, people who have Synesthesia just retain color memories from childhood. An example would be colorful alphabetical or numerical magnets that the child had played with. This theory, however, does not explain all aspects of the condition.(Ramachandran, 2005)" 

I learned that for some with Synesthesia, days of the week have color. It rang a bell! As a child I used to believe that days of week were associated with color. I hadn't remembered this in so long!

Monday is Red, Tuesday is Yellow, Wednesday is Green, Thursday is Purple, Friday is White, Saturday is Pink, Sunday is Blue.

It's interesting how this just all came back to me in a flash!

In rare cases, when hearing a specific note one will develop a specific taste their mouth. Another rare form is   where a person  can taste food while hearing specific musical notes. Fascinating.

 

When I look at a word I do not consistently see color. However, when I see certain words I can come up with a color if I choose to pause and ask myself what color I think it should be. The specified color then pops up pretty quickly in my mind. For the purpose of this post I went to a random website and looked at specific words and asked myself what colors I could associate to with the word I was staring at. Here are a few.

Phenomena is Black
Angela is Green
Film is Blue 
About is Red 
Scientist is Yellow 

I noticed that I could not associate a color with any and every word. But some colors jumped out at me immediately.

What I experience, does not interfere with my daily life. When I read I am not noticing colors, when I see signs I do not notice colors, when I see colors I do not think of certain words. Because of this I would have assumed that I only possessed tendencies rather than actually Synesthesia.
 
I decided to investigate further and came across a website which offered a lengthy testing battery for the condition of Synesthesia.

To visit this website and take the test for yourself, visit, http://synesthete.org.  

The results conclude that I have Grapheme Color Synesthesia. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I feel a little doubtful but regardless there is no major concern here. These associations with words, numbers and colors have no negative bearing on my life.

The Battery consists of four tests and one questionnaire. The first test is the Grapheme Color Picker Test. Here I was asked to identify a color which I associate with a letter or number. When a letter or number appeared on the screen a color popped up and I had a option of changing the color and picking a shade of that color. The same letters and numbers showed up repeatedly in random order.

I showed a score of 1.59. A score below 1.0 is ranked as synesthetic. Non-synethetes asked to use memory or free association typically score in the range of a 2.0. A perfect score of 0.0 would mean that there was no difference in the colors selected on each successive presentation of the same letter. So it appears that for this test I landed somewhere in the middle.

The second test was the Speed Congruency Test. My results for this test was 88.89%. An accuracy percentage of right answers in the range of 85-100 typically indicates synesthetic association between the graphemes and colors. Those below 85% typically rule out synesthesia. So, for this test I fit the Synesthetic category.

The third test was the Weekly Color Picker Test. Here I was asked to associate a color with a day of the week. The days appeared repeatedly and in random order. I scored 0.51. A score below 1.0 is ranked as synesthetic. Non-synethetes asked to use memory or free association typically score in the range of a 2.0. A perfect score of 0.0 would mean that there was no difference in the colors selected on each successive presentation of the same letter. Here to I fit the Synesthetic category.

The fourth test was the Monthly Color Picker Test. Here I  was asked to associate a color with a month and the months were repeated in random order. I scored a 0.8. A score below 1.0 is ranked as synesthetic. Non-synethetes asked to use memory or free association typically score in the range of a 2.0. A perfect score of 0.0 would mean that there was no difference in the colors selected on each successive presentation of the same letter. Again, I fit the category for Synesthetic category.

The combination of the tests and questionnaire resulted in a diagnosis of Grapheme Color Synesthesia.

For more information on the Synesthesia Battery and the details of how it is scored, please refer to David M. Eagleman, Arielle D. Kagan, Stephanie S. Nelson, Deepak Sagaram, Anand K. Sarma. A standardized test battery for the study of Synesthesia. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2007 Jan 15;159(1):139-145.
 
So, in the end what does this mean for me? Nuttin'! It's interesting of course but the only thing that has changed in my life is that now I have a name for what I experience.

Resources

To take the battery yourself visit http://synesthete.org and click on the tab that says, "Not Sure If You Are Synesthetic". It is located on the right hand side of the page.

For more information about Synesthesia visit The American Synesthesia Association.