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Swan Valley BearsJust wondering, because I saw a documentary recently about synesthesia and it seem that a lot of artists have it. What is it, you say?
It's crossing of the senses in the brain. My daughter, Paige has it. When she was six, she said, "Mom I know what color numbers are, and letters and words too." She explained to me that she sees all numbers, letters and words in it's own color. For instance, number 1 was red, 2 was yellow, 3 was kind of light blue and so on. Some even have patterns such as 7, which is black with silver dots. I wrote them down and quizzed her randomly off and on for several days and . . . always the same. (To this day the same because, "That's just what they are.")
I later learned that this was synesthesia. Where we see numbers and letters in our mind's eye, probably in black lettering, she sees in her mind's eye numbers, letters and even words, each with their own color. She also sees the numbers on a "line" in her head. 1 through 10 go up in a line then the teens slant out to the right then 20's go along to the back etc indefinitely. There were other synesthetes in the documentary with similar number "lines".
Some synesthetes see colors for music or sensations or emotions. One woman hated the color orange because it was her color for pain. One woman paints amazing pictures from the colors she sees when she hears symphonies.
It's been shown in studies that the synesthete's brain will show activity in the hearing and vision centers of the brain when they hear numbers, letters, words spoken. Non-synesthetes will only show activity in the hearing center when they hear them.
So, I was wondering if there were any synesthetes out there in this artist world here.
my little synesthete:
Past Time BearsI've never heard of this 'condition'? before, but my older daughter says she sees numbers as colors. I'll have to ask her about music. She's very talented musically, so it's possible she sees in technicolor when music is playing - or maybe when she's singing. She also has Asperger's Disorder - - - any connection? Very interesting and thanks for bringing it up, Patty.
Swan Valley BearsYay, I knew I'd find some synesthetes out there.
Very interesting, Sue Ann. There are musicians with synesthesia. Miles Davis has it, according to the documentary, and Paige is a musician too. I'll bet your daughter is a synesthete. Ask her about other things like music, letters and words. Although, many synesthetes only see one thing in color. Paige had a teacher in high school who only saw the numbers of the week in color.
Ask her to do a google search on synesthesia and let me know what she thinks.
AM BEARSShyly puts hand up...I can see colours in music, the way it bounces around a room, moods have colours, and also the colour that some illnesses are, by this I see a person whose colour is blue or red, or mauve (personality types) and then where the illness is there is a dark dot... Handy when I was working as a therapist. Oddly though there is no call for it as a sales assistant. It's not as strange as it sounds once you start looking at kirilian photography and stuff like that, and more people have it than we realize. I'm also sensitive to colour, I can't wear pastels, they make me feel washed out, navy blue makes me feel depressed and white makes me feel uncomfortably extroverted...does this even make any sense?
I'll get my coat
Andrea
Swan Valley BearsMakes perfect sense, Andrea. How facinating ! ! ! !
My mums friend can smell words, Patty 
She said my mums name had a nice fragrance- I wish I could remember what it was!
Swan Valley BearsChloe, there was a man on the documentary who had a food taste in his mouth for every word. He said it was quite confusing when he was trying to cook something, he would smell whatever he was cooking and taste all sorts of other thing.
Ellen, it doesn't sound like synesthesia because the colors are associated with something else; like the letter O is white with blue dots in Paige's head. But, how awful to find your new home with terrible, disturbing colors. EEK.
Newcastle, OntarioPatty,
I've seen a show on Synesthesia as well - it was one of the news shows like Dateline or something. I found it absolutely fascinating and I'd never heard of it before and have never known anyone with it. They interviewed children who saw colours with words etc and there were several musicians who saw colours with music as well. It also seems to run in families. It's hard to imagine what it would be like to "see" colours when talking etc. Very cool.
There was also some children who had a distortion problem - where things would look huge when they weren't etc. (hope that's a reasonable explation). Sort of an Alice in Wonderland effect. I found the whole subject really interesting.
hugs,
Brenda
Fascinating, Patty; I heard about this on NPR a few months ago, myself, in a really intriguing piecethat left me sitting in my car in my driveway for about fifteen minutes, just so I could finish listening! I've worked with autistic savants -- something totally different, but alike, in the sense that it illustrates how the brain works in really mysterious and marvelous ways. One kid, James, could barely form a sentence (he was of below average intelligence as well)... but he could tell you exactly where to turn, the name of the street, even the numbers on the segment on which you were driving. He was like a human GPS device!
I'm curious to learn whether being a synesthete helped or hindered Paige as she made her way through school, particularly in her math studies. Also, do you have the name of the documentary? I think I'd like to see it myself.
LuxembearsPatty I heard about this condition years ago and find it completely fascinating.
I have something but I don't know what you would call it. I transpose numbers and letters....I don't think I read particularly well but when I took a reading comprehension test in nursing school I passed at a level two years past college graduate. Yet when I read I often have to reread a sentence.
I will see "phone call" but read/or say "cone phall" just as an example. This kind of thing happens to me often.(.....unless I know someone really really well). It's embarassing. When I speak I can't
verbalize what I am thinking and it comes out screwed up. Which is why I tend to be on the shy side. And if you haven't noticed I write/type fragmented.
On the up side I can remember directions, places, animals and dance steps....in perfect detail... and have a great sense of direction.
. But I cannot remember anything to do with numbers...like phone numbers. I can only remember my moms. I don't get it. Sometimes I would think that I was just stupid....but then how did I graduate Nursing school with honors....and never studied for a test.
I deal with animals much MUCH better than with people. When I see photos of myself with animals I am at my happiest.
Maybe it's because animals don't pass judgement. 
Swan Valley BearsLike Shelli says, Judi, it's amazing "how the brain works in really mysterious and marvelous ways" (well said, Shelli). It was fascinating to watch the brain activity on the MRI in the documentary. Wouldn't it be fun to watch your brain activity? That would be tooo kewl.
Shelli, it was a documentary called "When Senses Collide" on the Science HD channel. I taped it on my Comcast DVR.
LuxembearsPatty yes, that would be really cool to see your own brain activity. The mind is the only thing that studies itself. Very interesting stuff. 
