Synesthesia and left-handedness
We had an email from Left Handers Club member Peggie recently that got us thinking. She said:"I am curious if a lot of left handers have synesthesia. Synesthesia is a form of “crossed wires” in the brain that causes a wide variety of interesting phenomenon such as tasting words, painting music and many others. To me people are a color, not an aura and it is very difficult to explain. Interestingly, I discovered when my son was about 8 yrs old he saw many people the same colors as I do. I have always been referred to as “wierd” in my family because I was the only lefty and this just adds to the weirdness. However, I am proud to be a lefty and unique in this world of boring right handers."
Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which people react to thinks with unusual combinations of their senses, for example perceiving certain letters, numbers or even emotions as colours. The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). Therefore, synesthesia literally means "joined perception." Synesthesia can involve any of the senses. Most common is colored numbers and letters, where someone always sees a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or number. For example, a synesthete (a person with synesthesia) might see the word "plane" as mint green or the number "4" as dark brown. There are also synesthetes who hear sounds in response to smell, who smell in response to touch, or who feel something in response to sight and there are people who "see" emotions as colours (for example we all know about "feeling blue"). Synesthetic perceptions are specific to each person. Different people with synesthesia almost always disagree on their perceptions. In other words, if one synesthete thinks that the letter "q" is colored blue, another synesthete might see "q" as orange. Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, was a synesthete. He tried to evoke sound through vision – pitch through color. His abstract paintings are intricate and (maybe literally) resounding.
This is his "Composition VII", painted in Munich, Germany in 1913.
He wrote :
"Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." |
- "Red" from Taylor Swift’s Album Red (2012), which includes the lyrics Losing him was blue like I’d never known Missing him was dark grey all alone Loving him was red
- "Yellow" from Coldplay’s Album Parachutes (2000)
Comments 21
Ive Never met anyone with synesthesia yet alone both so it seems preety rare
Am I a synesthete?
Note: (I'm actually ambidextrous, but usually decide to use the left hand for things)
It fascinated my Mum and she just put it down to me being left handed or fanciful. I'm now in my mid fifties and still see colours. I'm glad to know there are others the same as me, though I hope there aren't too many around as it always made me feel special.
Keep up the good work with your website, it's brill!
I guess I've always seen letters and numbers as colors, but also that letters correspond to certain numbers.
I've never experienced the phenomena of tasting words, letters, or numbers though. But that would be something!
But now I have read what other people have put on I realise that I think I have it too. Every body I know has a colour depending on the first letter of their name also there is a colour for every smell and number. I found reading the other people's comments interesting. Thank you peggie for putting it on. I will ask my other left handed classmates about it.:-D
To me it was always like a fun little game I got play in my own mind. I don't think I've ever told anyone about this but mainly because I figured everyone did this.
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