Synesthetes Mixing of the Senses- Synesthesia Examples, Definition and Colored Numbers

People who hear colors and see sound are described as synesthetes. Synesthetes have a response with one of their senses that matches what they are detecting with another of their senses.

While many people will hear a sound and not associate it with a particular color, people who are synesthetes experience something different. They match what they hear with a color.

Synesthetes may experience a mixing of more than one sense at any time. They may smell a particular sound- for example, laughter may smell sweet. An individual who perceives sound like this may also associate a visual with some sounds.

Doctors describe this medical condition as synesthesia. It is a neurological condition which is experienced by people all across the globe. Many of the people whose senses work differently have always been synesthetes. People with synesthesia feel different effects.

Some synesthetes do not see letters that are typed in regular black text as black. Instead, their brain automatically assigns a unique color to each letter. Some persons have a sense of space when it comes to dates and may see a calendar date that is nearer as being physically closer than another date. There are more than sixty different ways in which people with synesthesia mix their senses.

Doctors are divided on how synesthesia works. Some physicians think that all human beings are born with synesthesia but as the brain develops, many people have their senses split. This means that they no longer see blue, for example, when they hear a loud sound. Doctors think that the split occurs after a child reaches four months.

According to what some doctors think, people with synesthesia do not experience this split after they reach four months, so they may hear a sound every time they see something move. Physicians are of this opinion because they observe that young infants only respond to changes in the intensity of the stimulation that they receive.

There are also people who have never experienced synesthesia before, who only start to see colors and hear sound after they have had something affect them externally. For example, people who have had seizures, individuals who have had a concussion and persons who have lost the blood supply to a particular area of the brain may all smell colors, see sound or experience synesthesia in some other way.