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INSIDE PERSPECTIVES of AS & Neurodiversity |
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SYNESTHESIA
Some sensitive and neuro-atypical people have various degrees of synesthesia.
“Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a three-dimensional view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise).” - from Synesthesia (Wikipedia)
“Most synesthetes function at a very high level, are highly intelligent and often have excellent memories. Trouble telling left from right and a poor sense of direction are also common. It is not unusual for them to experience difficulties with math. It is also not unusual for synesthetes to report frequent experiences of deja vu, clairvoyance, and precognitive dreams. Fifteen percent of people with synesthesia have someone in their immediate family with autism, dyslexia or attention deficit disorder.” - Cheryl Lynn Bradley, Synesthesia
“Everything people say I see written in front of my eyes, everything I think I also see written. The text (just like the sound) is also in 3-D with different texture and material. Synesthesia can trigger synesthesia. Someone says something, I see the text, the text smells good or tastes good, I feel hungry. Words come very easy to me since I can locate words that have a similar material. In an IQ test I did a reading-test where one had to read 6 A4 pages in 5 minutes and underline 1 of 3 alternatives that showed up in the text now and then. I read all the pages in less than 1˝ minutes and got 9/9 on the test. 5/9 was college level (I was told).
“But that is not all. I see smells (in colour). I see tactile impressions (in lines and patterns), I see feelings, also as colours it is called emotional synesthesia.
“But how do you think it feels never to have any distance to anything? When you hear the sound of a car 500 meters away you have some distance, for me it is right in front of my eyes and in my head. When I go shopping (for example) I have to READ everything people say, I have to see their smells, hear their sounds. It feels like having people right in my face and I find it hard to be among people, it’s just too many impressions for me.” - ‘JFK’, adult synesthete from Sweden
“Negative emotions have stinky smells, i.e. garbage, mold, thunderstorms, etc. and dark or ugly muddyed colors. Postive emotions have bright almost neon colors, and good smells, baking bread, sun, earth, ocean, real flower fragrances, etc.” - Beth, adult Aspie from USA
“I seem to have a mix, not just ‘seeing’ colors but also connecting other senses with each other. If I contract a specific muscle near my ear in a particular way, it feels like a street-car from the 70’s. Tuesdays are both male and female, but Wednesdays are only female, plus orange-red. Good night is soft in the shape of that spiral thingy that Goofy has under on the sole of his shoe. Some sounds tickle. Other sounds sound like fire-works look. Salt is a warm taste.” - Emma, adult ADHD/Aspie from Sweden
I don’t have cross-wired senses, but I very strongly associate numbers, letters, weekdays and names with specific colours. Colours also have gender for me. These connections have remained the same since I was a child.
I’ve also always had an inner map of numbers, dates, the year and the 24-hour cycle that does not match regular calendars or clocks. My calendar is counter-clockwise and the hours between 6 am and midnight are all jammed in between 6 and 12 on my internal clock visualisation. This is why I keep getting surprised that the night hours don’t last as long as the day hours - they each fit into one equal half of my internal clock and ‘should’ therefore be equally long... :-) - Inger, site-author
links
Synesthesia Wikipedia
Synesthesia: Phenomenology And Neuropsychology
Everyday fantasia: the world of synsethesia
Museums of the mind by Dr Hugo Heyrman - lots of links
Synaesthesia info and more links
Optimnem: The Official Website of Daniel Tammet an autistic savant with synesthesia
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