Numbers are numbers like.
If they are together they look like this.
What is she saying that she sees numbers as a color. When she thinks of 7 she mixes it up with 3 because they are both yellow. I just don't understand.
Now I know theirs a psychological disorder called Synesthesia. However is that the same thing or something else?
Well not many people know about Synesthesia or what it is. So let my shed some light on it. Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people's names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor. The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). Therefore, synesthesia literally means "joined perception."
Synesthesia can be between any senses. However the most common one is, colored letters and numbers. It occurs when someone always sees a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or number. Another form can be people who hear sounds in response to smell, who smell in response to touch, or who feel something in response to sight. Just about any combination of the senses is possible. There are some people who possess synesthesia involving three or even more senses, but that is extremely rare.
People who have synesthesia though hardly ever agree on what things they perceive. It is unique to every person.
So how does this weird thing happen? What is going on the brain that is causing this?
Some scientists believe that synesthesia results from "crossed-wiring" in the brain. They hypothesize that in synesthetes, neurons and synapses that are "supposed" to be contained within one sensory system cross to another sensory system. It is unclear why this might happen but some researchers believe that these crossed connections are present in everyone at birth, and only later are the connections refined. For people with synesthesia that connection never breaks causing sensations to move between different parts of the brain causing them to mix things up.
There are many other ideas to what causes synesthesia but no one really knows why.
I think my roommate has Syneshesia? Do you?
Well, knowing this certain individual you speak of, and understanding how she tends to think, I believe that she has some form of synesthesia. There is certainly some dyscalculia there as well (of course :]) but those two things are not mutually exclusive. Maybe they build on each other.
ReplyDeleteAs Emma already said, we know this certain individual you speak of. I personally do think that she has some form of synesthesia. I would like to add that she also has serious issues with dyscalculia. In this situation, she probably uses her synesthesia as a means of learning math when numbers and their related concepts are much harder to understand by themselves. I'm not sure if she had to train her brain to precisely label certain numbers as certain colors of if that came naturally. 4% of the world's population has synesthesia in one form or another. I wouldn't be surprised if she has it too.
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