Cytowic Eagleman Synesthesia Varieties

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2 AKaleidoscopicWorld

Anastoundingtwo-thirdsoourapproximately25,000genesareexpressed

inthe brain. Because genescan betranscribed ina variety owaysand

urther inuenced by external orces (called epigenetic), synesthesia

occursinanamazingarrayocombinations.Havingonetypeosynesthe-

siagivesyoua50%chanceohavingasecondorthirdtype,meaningthat

thegeneisactiveinanumberodierentbrainareassimultaneously.We

callindividualswithmultiplekindsosynesthesiapolymodal.

Table2.1listshowrelativelycommondierenttypesosynesthesiaare.

The tabulation o requencies was compiled by Sean Day, an American

linguistwhoishimselsynesthetic.Healsomoderatesanonlinecommu -

nitycalledTheSynesthesiaListthatbringstogethersynesthetes,research-

ers,andcuriousindividuals.1Becausethetablesdatarelyonsel-identifed

synesthetes rather than random sampling, it is biased in the same way

surveysareaswediscussedinthepreviouschapter.Forexample,SeanDays

sampling ound a emale-to-male sex ratio o 2.5 to 1 and ound that

graphemecoloristhemostcommonmaniestationneitherowhich

hasheldtobetrueaterJuliaSimnerandhercolleaguesstudiedrandom

slicesothepopulation.2Theyshowedaroughlyequalnumberowomen

andmenandthatthemostcommonsynesthesiatypeiscoloreddayso

theweek.Still,thetableisuseulsolongaswekeepthiscaveatinmind.

Oninspectingtable2.1twoobservationsstandout.First,somecombina -

tionsare ar more common thanothers.Lookin retrospect athowrare

Michael Watsons tasting shapes was: only hal a percent. It is equally

obvious that color is overwhelmingly the most common synesthetic

response,whereasgraphemes,timeunits(suchasdayso theweek),and

sounds are the most common synesthetic triggers. Second, notice that

synesthesiausuallygoesonlyinonedirection,suchassoundvisionbut

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Table2.1

Relativerequencyodierenttypesosynesthesia

Type Frequency(%)

Graphemescolors 66.50Timeunitscolors 22.80

Musicalsoundscolors 18.50

Generalsoundscolors 14.50

Phonemescolors 9.90

Musicalnotescolors 9.60

Smellscolors 6.80

Tastescolors 6.60

Soundtastes 6.20

Paincolors 5.80

Personalitiescolors 5.50

Touchcolors 4.00

Soundtouch 4.00

Temperaturescolors 2.40

Visiontastes 2.10

Soundssmells 1.80

Visionsounds 1.50

Orgasmcolors 1.00

Emotionscolors 1.00

Visionsmells 1.00

Visiontouch 1.00

Smellstouch 0.60Touchtastes 0.60

Smellssounds 0.50

Soundskinetics 0.50

Soundtemperatures 0.50

Tastestouch 0.50

Kineticssounds 0.40

Personalitiessmells 0.40

Touchsounds 0.40

Touchsmell 0.30

Visiontemperatures 0.30

Musicalnotestastes 0.10

Personalitiestouch 0.10

Smellstastes 0.10

Smellstemperatures 0.10

Tastessounds 0.10

Tastestemperatures 0.10

Temperaturessounds 0.10

Touchtemperatures 0.10

Note.Comparativerequenciesodierentkindsosynesthesia.Dataarebasedon

SeanDaystabulationo738sel-reportedcasesromanonrandomsample.InDays

sample,72%wereemaleand28%weremale.(Dataarereproducedwithpermission

romhttp://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/html/types.htm.)



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AKaleidoscopicWorld 25

hardlyevervisionsound.Thisshouldhavebeenanothercluetoskeptics

thatsynesthesiawasreal,becauseneuralcircuitsareknowntobedirec-tionalwhereasmade-upstorieswouldhavenoreasontobe.Lastly,while

weusuallyreertosynesthesiaascross-sensorypairings,thetablemakes

clearthatawidevarietyononsensorycognitivetraits(suchaspersonality)

cancouplewithvariousaspectsosensation.Thismakesthephenomenon

allthemoreintriguing.

Recently, Davids laboratory rigorously verifed grapheme color

synesthesiain1,067subjects(chapter3givesdetailsothetesting).Addi-

tionaltypesosynesthesiareportedbymembersothisgroupappearin

fgure2.1.Weekdaycolorandmonthcolorsynesthesias,listedastimeunitscolorsintable2.1,arethemostcommonco-occurringsynesthe-

sias. This is not surprising given the high prevalence o these orms in

general.Musicalsoundscolorandspatialsequencesaretiedorbeing

the next most common types, while almost hal o grapheme color

synesthetesseemtohaveoneorbothothese.Notethatspatialsequence

synesthesia,discussedbelowandinchapter5,arenotincludedinDays

survey.Alsonotethatwiththeexceptionospatialsequencesynesthesia,

the other most common orms o co-occurring synesthesia all involve

color,whilethoseinvolvingtouch,taste,sound,andsmellarecompara-tivelyrare.Forty-fveothe203synesthetes(22%)reporthavingnoother

WeekdaysColor

MonthColor

MusicalSoundsColor

SpatialSequences

PersonalityColor

GeneralSoundsColor

EmotionColor

PainColor

OdorColor

OrgasmColor

TasteColor

TemperatureColor

TouchColor

SoundTouch

SoundTaste

VisionTaste

VisionSound

SoundSmell

VisionSmell

Otherformsofsynesthesia(%)

Other forms of synesthesia experienced

by verified grapheme color synesthetes

100

0

77.871.9

51.749.3

33.5 31.5 31.5

22.7 22.2 19.2 17.7

12.8 12.312.3 9.4 9.4 8.4 6.4 5.4

Figure2.1

Othertypesosynesthesiareportedby1,067verifedgraphemecolorsynesthetes.

DataareromDavidEaglemansSynesthesiaBattery.



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26 Chapter2

orm o synesthesia. Which synesthesias tend to co-occur, and why, is

revisitedinchapters9and10.

CommonSynesthesiaTypes

Tointroducethebroadarrayosynesthesiatypes,wewillbeginbybriey

elaborating fve common types o synesthesia: number orms, colored

letters(bothwrittenandspoken),tastedwords,coloredhearing,andthe

personifcationolettersandnumbers.

NumberFormsThecouplingocolor,perspective,andspatialconfgurationwithconcepts

involvingsequence,orordinality,wasnotedmorethanacenturyago.3To

thosewhoseenumberorms(alsocalledspatialsequencesynesthesia),

numbersorotherorderedconceptstypicallylieonapaththattwistsand

zigzagsinallmanneroshapes.Otenitloopsaroundandencirclesthe

bodyasitexecutesavarietyoangles,bends,andcurves(seefgure2.2).

Suchpatternsdierindierentpersons.Figure2.3showsseveralsimple

ormsthatGaltonillustratedin1883: 4

Figure2.2

Aclockwisenumberormwithrightanglesthatencirclesthebody.



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Figure2.3

NumberormsreportedbySirFrancisGalton,1883.



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28 Chapter2

Thedrawings,however,ailingivingtheideaotheapparentsizetothosewhosee

them;theyusuallyoccupyawiderrangethanthementaleyecantakeinatasingleglance,andcompelittowander.Sometimestheyarenearlypanoramic.

Theseorms...arestatedinallcasestohavebeeninexistence,soarastheearlier

numbersintheFormareconcerned,aslongbackasthememoryextends;theycome

into view quite independently o the will, and their shape and position...are

nearlyinvariable.5

Likeotherkindsosynestheticperception,numberormshaveadynamic

qualityaswellrecallthestudentwhocomplainedtohermathteachero

digitsthatkeptgoinguptotheirplaces.Intheclassroom,Nobelphysi-

cistRichardFeynmansawcoloredequationsoatinginspaceinrontohim:6AsImtalking,IseevaguepicturesoBesselunctions...withlight

tanjs,slightlyviolet-bluishnsand darkbrownxsyingaround.AndI

wonderwhatthehellitmustlookliketostudents.

Synesthetespossessingnumberormsexpressamazementthatnotevery -

oneseesnumbersastheydoorthatanyonefndssuchspatialconfgura-

tionsodd.AsgraphemesynestheteMartiPikeputsit,Itneveroccurred

to me that it might be unnatural to visualize the whole alphabet or

numbers.Peoplelikeherdescribetheormsvividly,matter-o-actlyand

inthepresenttense.Numberormsdonotindicatehighmathematicalabilityordefciency,

nordotheyseemtobecorrelatedwithanyspecifcintellectualtalentor

mentaldullness.However,theautomaticpositioningointegerscaninter-

erewithmorecomplexmathematics,suchasalgebraorcalculus,asinthe

waywardnumbersothestudentcitedabove.Foronething,notesMarti,

theyare not evenly orconsistently spaced. There isalso some uidor

jelly-likemovementtothem.Magnitudecanalsobeproblematicbecause,

orMarti,6isphysicallythehighestnumberinhervisualrepresentation.

Thereore,6andnumberscontaining6havethehighestdegreeomagni-

tude. Inother words itdoes not make sense to her that 11islarger

than6 orthat234is greaterthan66.Toher,magnitudecomparisons

areliterallyphysical:whenshethinksosomeoneolderthanhersel,she

looksup,whereasyoungerpeopleareseennotdownbutinbacko

hersel.

Alphabet,time,andcalendarormsareespeciallycommon.Inthelatter,

itisusualorthemonthstotakeupunequalspace,andthetopmostmonth

isbynomeansnecessarilyJanuary(seefgure2.4).



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Figure2.4

CalendarandmonthormsorMartiPike.NotethatJuneistopmostandthatJuly,

August, and September take up more space than other months. Brown-colored

Novembergiveswaytoabrownserpentineormordaysothatmonth.High-

lighted days mark appointments, birthdays, and special occasions, aiding her

memory.

Cytowic Eagleman Synesthesia Varieties

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