What is synesthesia?

Synesthesia is when you hear music, but you see shapes. Or you hear a word or a name and instantly see a color. Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another.

What does someone with synesthesia see?

Some synesthetes hear, smell, taste or feel pain in color. Others taste shapes, and still others perceive written digits, letters and words in color. And many synesthetes experience more than one form of the condition.

Are you born with synesthesia?

Everyone is potentially born with synaesthesia, where colours, sounds and ideas can mix, but as we age our brains become specialised to deal with different stimuli. Such synaesthetes have a one-to-one association linking letters and numbers with a certain colour.

Is synesthesia hereditary?

Heredity in Synesthesia While a proven genetic basis for synesthesia remains elusive, the phenomenon tends to run in families, as ∼40\% of synesthetes report a first-degree relative with the condition [3],[19].

Can I develop synesthesia?

People who experience synesthesia are usually born with it or develop it very early in childhood. It’s possible for it to develop later. Research indicates that synesthesia can be genetically inherited . Each one of your five senses stimulate a different area of your brain.

Can you become a Synesthete?

It’s rare that brain injuries lead to synesthesia, but we’ve seen cases where people develop extraordinary talents, including synesthesia. In those cases, you damage your brain in a very specific area, flocking the area with neurotransmitters. Synesthesia develops that way.

Can I become a Synesthete?

How do you train synesthesia?

Teach yourself synaesthesia

1. Training Half an hour, five days a week, on progressively harder tasks that test your recall of colours associated with 13 letters of the alphabet.
2. Homework Read e-books where those 13 letters always appear in the right colours.