gustatory auditory synaesthesia

[Elliot Kane]

It's someone whose brain has somehow linked sound and taste, so that they taste words. Quite fascinating, I thought.

Interview with a sufferer here.

Although 'sufferer' is not really the right word, I don't have a better one...

(It's a medical condition, hence in Science & Tech, for the curious)

[kitty]

Synaesthesia can also come in other forms Like connecting numbers to colors or shapes to sounds.

In combination with schizophrenia its considered a halluzinatory symptom, in combination with an over average IQ it's considered a sign of the same.

It's not really a condition though, it's a pretty nice .. issue ^_^

[Elliot Kane]

I thought you'd find this one interesting, Kit

[kitty]

There are various scientist saying that this condition is untestable, they believe the people learn certain patterns by heart.

Most art and musicschools are convinced about the existence though, because at least 20% of their students have it.

Clemens Brentano was one (he's a poet), he wrote a poem about it which is interesting for many synaesthesia researchers. There is no english translation (that I could find..) so I try to translate it:

Listen how the flute's lamenting,
and the cool well a-soughing!
The tunes fall down golden,
quiet, quiet, let us listen!

Propitious asking, mild desire,
how it talks sweetly to ones heart!
Through the night that girt me,
the light of the tunes glance at me!

Ok I tried my best here... old german into semi-old english isn't so easy

But the poem shows the synaesthesia idea quite well - the sounds he hears have a color (gold) etc.

Deffo an interesting topic - any bordie 'suffers' from that?

[Elliot Kane]

The idea has always been very fascinating to me. I do not have the condition in any of its forms, however.

[Alrik]

Clemens Brentano ? I'm actually surprised someone knows him ...

I've heard of him before, but I didn't know that ...

In the HSP forum I'm in there are several people with Synaestethics or how it is spelled. Numbers have distinct colours, for example. Letters and whole words, too. On TV I once saw a brief kind of interview with a woman who had given her children all names beginning with the letter "a", because she liked the colour of it most.

In the HSP forum I'm in there are also several "Synnies", how they call themselves, who believe(d) that *everyone* perceives the world like they do ! Until they eventually learn that this is not so ...

[kitty]

^ I like your forum Alrik

I've some synaesthesia-related issues, but I know that one is schizophrenia-related.

The other though, docs couldn't relate to the illness and I also can't remember a starting point of it like with the schizo-related one.

I'm in a forum where I met one person who had a similar syn. to mine, was nice, cause most have different - from when I was very little (well talking from the time I can remember back so about 3) I had a 'problem' with words or rather the 'melody' of them. And I mean that quite literally. Certain words or the root words of them, have a melody (musical melody) to me. As an example, my most hated german word is 'Teig', the word for dough.
I started dancing with 3 aswell and was convinced that the people around me had no musical understanding because they used the word 'Teig' so often and so easily - my mum never understood why I liked cake but not liked talking about it!
The person I met has a similar syn. with vowels and diphthongs.

Oh and Alrik - I won a Poetry Award by the Clemens Brentano Foundation before, that's how I know him well enough to remember that poem above ;D

[Alrik]

Nice.

[killerzzz]

Very cool stuff. I've found this condition pretty interesting too, though I haven't really looked into it much, and so haven't thought of all the different possible combinations it can have!

Don't think I have it, but I do tend to describe (and think of) language as song and movement as dance.

Killerzzz