[NakedScientist]

It's a nice theory John, but probably not correct.

Studies of the developing nervous system show that growing nerves are guided to the correct parts of the brain during embryogenesis and thereafter a process of 'tuning up' occurs whereby repeated use of those nerve pathways leads to a selective strengthening of appropriate connections, and the pruning of abberant connections. There is a critical period during early life when brains are at their most plastic. After this time the brain becomes much more 'rigid' and is less able to adapt. A kitten who's eyes are glued / stitched closed for 6 weeks after it is born will never see even though the brain and eyes themselves are completely normal - the problem is that the brain needs early visual input from the eyes to tune itself up so that it can process vision correctly.

The reason I don't buy your synaesthesia theory is that the regions of the brain that control vision and hearing are a large distance apart. There would not normally be abberant projections spanning such large distances. I suspect that in synaesthetics there has been an error in nerve navigation during development, or the failure of a certain population of nerve fibres to die leaving vestigial weak connections between disparate parts of the brain.

Chris

[tweener]

Just a thought.  I've forgotten most of what I learned in that class and though I've done some reading over the years, I'm not very knowledgable of brain physiology and development.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

[Tann San]

Hi, wow I see colors when I hear certain words or see certain things.  When I was younger it was clearer.  I got it when I saw people as well.  It's hard to explain, you don't really see the color i.e. everything doesnt become tinted blue, it's just a really heavy impression that you just know is blue, red, green etc...

[chris]

That's exactly it ! That's synaesthesia.

Do certain words elicit the response, or any words ? Ditto faces ?

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[Tann San]

Hi, people and place names tend to do it.  It's kind of funny, when I was smaller I thought it was a kind on insight into the person before I knew them.  Always got along fine with blues and greens.  I still kind of do it but nowadays it's more of an after-thought impression...it's kind of hard to explain and I feel a bit silly, havent told anyone since the first time I brought it up.  I just assumed everyone was the same...much to my friends ammusement! :¬)

Some words do elicit a response although I'm not too sure anymore if those are just learnt recognition i.e too many tv ads with WAR written in red.  Such as red/black/white for war etc..sex is orange..my first girlfriend was blue, faces definately do it.

I think if I do have synaesthesia it's great, as it means other people do to.  Do we all see the same colors then?  I told my girl about this thread, she's an OT so I always ask her loads of medical questions..she said she gets it too but I dont think it's like mine.  I suspect everyone has synaestesia but to different levels of conciousness.  Kind of like some people get the color impression like me but other people just have the impression that I sense with the color..good/bad/friendly/hostile/nice..etc

[Tann San]

Hi again, well I've been doing some reading and it seems there are loads of people like me, they even do tests on us!  Can't thank you enough for giving it a name, I've searched before but not really had a target to look for.  Theres lots of sites with more information, this is the first I read and it summarises quite well:

http://www.thecure.com/robertpages/synaesthesiapiece.html

[s_firestone]

I have 20/40 vision in my right eye, 20/200 in my left eye.  I can cover one eye(with or without glasses) and perceive a slight difference in hue looking at the same object.  

Explanation... Lenses refract light.  Light of different wavelengths(colors) propagate through a medium at different speeds based upon the medium's index of refraction.  Since one of the corneas of my eye is thicker than the other colors are ever so slightly delayed by their wavelength and arrive at the retina at different times.  Corrective lenses cannot fully correct this effect.

This same effect is what causes prismatic effect looking through a telescope or causes stars to twinkle.  Colors appear to split into their component colors.  Although I see no prism effect the perceived overall hue of the image is slightly affected.

My right eye does 90% of the work processing detail because from birth that eye had a sharper image and became my dominant eye.  The left eye was fuzzy and therefore in most cases it's image is ignored.

One of the coolest days of my life was getting glasses and finding out that stars were pinpoints, not dandilion-like puffballs, and that you could actually "SEE" individual leaves on trees and see powerlines from over a mile.

But I notived the color difference very early on.  BTW, at close(6" to 2') range, my left eye is capable of seeing much finer details and at lower light levels than my right.  Comes in handy when trying to discern a tiny number on a dimly lit IC chip inside a PC from an extreme angle.  Shame it only works up to 2'.


Stephen Firestone

[tweener]

Welcome s_firestone - it's nice to hear from you.

Interesting differences.  I wonder if your left eye is dominant at close range because it is nearsighted and thus gives better images up close while your right is better at distance.  

The difference in hue is strange.  I've never heard of that before, not that I'm in any position to hear much of those sort of things.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

[Tann San]

Hi, I didnt know I had a sight problem till I was around 10.  When I got glasses the world seemed alot more vibrant and I had the same sort of thing.  Clouds was my first wonder!  Later I got contact lenses and yet again the difference was intense.  The colors I see for things dont change though no matter which form of sight I use (none, glasses, contacts).

[chris]

Tann - I'm delighted that you turned up and gave such a clear description of synaesthesia, proving that I was not talking clap-trap above ! In answer to your comment about what people actually experience the answer is that it seems to be quite individual. Some people experience colours triggered by specific words or situations, others 'taste' shapes - in other words they experience a taste sensation when the see certain shapes. I think it must be a wonderful experience to have because it adds another dimension to the world as we experience it with our limited senses.

Stephen - I was about 6 when I first noticed that with one eye the fluorescent light in my classroom looked a creamier colour than with the other eye, which made it look stark white. I have since found quite a few people with this sort of mild disparity in colour perception between the 2 eyes. Initially I thought it might have something to do with retinal photoreceptors. I must admit I am intrigued by your suggested answer - which I have not heard before.

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[bezoar]

Maybe all these people who see auras are really just experiencing synaesthesia, but then, the color they see tells them something about the person.  I guess there has to be some ESP involved in the brains choice of color for the individual.

[baby2michaelt]

I don' think that it is a form of ESP. I thin that it is probably yhe fact thet certain colors like red automatically suggest evil where as blue may suggest calm or nice. Now i do not know that much about ESP so hat could be what i just described but i am not sre. I have a very small amout of synaesthesia. I had neverr realy though about it untill i looked at this site.

baby2michaelt[}:)]

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Whenever I see something with a faded-olive color, I tend to perceive it as grey where everyone perceive it as green. With some proper lighting I can see some green there, but not as dominant as the grey. However, everyone thinks otherwise.