Hmm... a new form of synesthesia?

[YourEverydayWaffle]

Hey all. Synesthesia is a huge gray area for everybody, especially since many synesthetes are unaware of it, and that there are MANY variations of it. For those of you who don't know, synesthesia is the "crossing of senses", where one sensory stimulation triggers another sense. For example, a sound->color synesthete would see colors based on the sound they hear, and a lexical->gustatory synesthete would taste things based on syllables they hear. There are many more types. I recently found I have sound->shape synesthesia, and have been doing extensive research on the topic. During this, I found a subreddit where a couple of people were talking about how interaction with a computer mouse brought about some synesthesia-like responses. These synesthesia-like reactions were all usually based on the state of the cursor (hand holding up index finger, arrow pointer, text-hover icon, etc.), and induced some sort of a texture-feeling effect, for lack of better terms. The best way to describe it, since I experience this too, is that you "feel" the link, or whatever it is you are interacting with, be that in your mind, or however else you experience it. I made this poll to get more data on if this is common or not, and ultimately, find out if this is indeed a form of synesthesia or a normal interaction. No matter what you vote, it will still be very important. So far, it's been tough to tell whether this is normal or not, from the few people I've asked. I in no I'll post my conclusion later if I get enough data.

POLL QUESTION: When you are using a mouse, and, say you mouse over something or click on something, and the cursor icon changes, do you experience a texture like sense, as if you can feel the cursor/screen, or experience another sensory reaction similar to this? As a aide note, it does not have to be a feeling like you would feel if you normally touched or tasted or whatever'd, it can certainly be something totally in your head.

Thanks for this guys, your poll votes will really help, and possibly find a new variant of synesthesia if the results suggest that (don't worry, that won't be what I draw my conclusions from, it'll just be a major chunk of data to use). Questions and discussion are very welcome!

Edited December 15, 2014 by YourEverydayWaffle

[Ikaneko]

Hmmm...

From what you said about that sub-reddit, I believe those reactions to be more proustian than synaesthesiac

Proustian reactions are memories that are strongly linked, so much so that when one is triggered by an action, so's the other.

My two cents

[YourEverydayWaffle]

From what you said about that sub-reddit, I believe those reactions to be more proustian than synaesthesiac

I probably shouldn't have used the word "texture". One of the classic issues with us synesthetes is that there are really no words to describe exactly what we see or hear or whatever. For example, the sound of a trumpet is a smooth line to me, stretching across my mind's eye. I know it's smooth, but the edges look really fairly rough to me. That's just one little example, but there are a lot of things like this, where you sort of know what it is, but also think what you're sensing is like something totally different at the same time. Our language doesn't really have words to describe most of the things we experience. In this case, you probably wouldn't feel a definitive texture like, say, if you were to feel a piece of bread, but rather something else, beyond what normal language can describe. "Texture" is really the closest you can get to describing it to others without synesthesia. At least, this is how I and a couple others that I was talking with about this see it.

[Three1415]

This is interesting. I, too, experience such a feeling; when I hover my cursor over a link, for example, I feel it as a button-like sensation, although I am unsure if this is just conditioned by being used to clicking such links.

However, a possible correlation: I also am synesthetic, specifically lexical->visual, where I "see" spoken words as subtitle-like text...Perhaps people who are already synesthetic are more prone to acquiring this additional synesthetic form, or at least to being conditioned in a Proustian manner? A curious phenomenon indeed.

[Skyler4856]

I do associate various subjects with certain colors

English with Red

Science with Green

Math with Blue

Latin with Orange

Etcetera

[NFUN]

I do associate various subjects with certain colors

English with Red

Science with Green

Math with Blue

Latin with Orange

Etcetera

I don't believe that is synesthesia, unless when you interact with these subjects you see the colors. I've usually organized my classes according to those colors, but I don't experience any actual sensitivity to this. Many people associate green with science too, this is probably cultural attitude and not synesthesia.

[lajoswinkler]

I do associate various subjects with certain colors

English with Red

Science with Green

Math with Blue

Latin with Orange

Etcetera

That is not synesthesia. Synesthesia is a mild disorder, an anomaly if you please, of the neurological pathways. Teh brainz and sensoric organs are playing a joke.

What you have are cultural associations.

Synesthesia is, for example, when your eyes are exposed to red light, your brain actually hears a tone, as if the inner ear has been active. That should not happen.

[YourEverydayWaffle]

I do associate various subjects with certain colors

English with Red

Science with Green

Math with Blue

Latin with Orange

Etcetera

Association is very different that something synesthetic. Synesthesia is 100% involuntary, no matter what the response. I have the exact same associations as you, though, which is interesting. Those colored associations are probably stemmed from some sort of early childhood relationship with them. I remember my math papers all being printed blue, probably the cause for such associations for me. Synesthesia can be biased like that, but is always more than just an association (don't get "association" confused with the "associative" variant of synesthesia, as these are two very different things).

[trekkie_]

a lot of people that think they have synesthesia, don't actually have it. example: sound > shape. Well just about anyone can close their eyes, listen to some music, and imagine something like what you would see with a sound visualization plugin. REAL synesthesia has basically ONE reaction to something, involuntarily. So if the same of something doesn't trigger the same color/visual/etc over and over involuntarily, it's not synesthesia. So if you were to say listen to a song, close your eyes and see visuals, those visuals would be EXACTLY the same EVERY time you heard the song.

Edited December 14, 2014 by trekkie_

[YourEverydayWaffle]

a lot of people that think they have synesthesia, don't actually have it. example: sound > shape. Well just about anyone can close their eyes, listen to some music, and imagine something like what you would see with a sound visualization plugin. REAL synesthesia has basically ONE reaction to something, involuntarily. So if the same of something doesn't trigger the same color/visual/etc over and over involuntarily, it's not synesthesia. So if you were to say listen to a song, close your eyes and see visuals, those visuals would be EXACTLY the same EVERY time you heard the song.

Good point, I forgot to mention that. By the way, all of my reactions are consistent over time, in case that sound->shape example was directed at me.

[YourEverydayWaffle]

However, a possible correlation: I also am synesthetic, specifically lexical->visual, where I "see" spoken words as subtitle-like text...Perhaps people who are already synesthetic are more prone to acquiring this additional synesthetic form, or at least to being conditioned in a Proustian manner? A curious phenomenon indeed.

I agree. I tend to get a lot of Proustian memory "popups", a whole lot more than other people do. I bet you're right in saying that us synesthetes are more likely to acquire a Proustian response to something. Maybe it's something synthetic (not synesthetic), that our brain creates in it's natural response to pattern-finding, that little dopamine burst that our brains give us when we predict a pattern or something of the like (I can't remember what it's called, but it is a common thing, and a basis for curiosity), that we would be more prone to getting if your hypothesis about us being more likely to acquire Proustian memories is true. I get taste-related involuntary memories all the time (I don't think it's a taste form of synesthesia, I can never manage to duplicate it).

Lexical->visual has always sounded neat. It sounds a whole lot more useful than my seeing shapes in sound.

[lajoswinkler]

Synesthesia must be a real pain in the ass. For example you touch a smooth surface and you see blue light, or you taste sugar and you hear a tone. Awful.

[YourEverydayWaffle]

Synesthesia must be a real pain in the ass. For example you touch a smooth surface and you see blue light, or you taste sugar and you hear a tone. Awful.

Most people think so, but it's actually great once you're aware of the fact that you have it. I mean, us synesthetes have grown up with this, just like a non-synesthete grew up with sound being just sound, or numbers having no personalities. I mean, it doesn't replace a sense, you just hear it "along side" your normal sense. Once you find out you have synesthesia (most of us don't find out until we're at least 15+ years old), it's great. You can use it to your advantage, too, like with my sound->shape synesthesia, I can remember songs and most sounds really well after only a short bit of time, and can usually locate the location of a sound immediately if needed. It's not like those are really that practical, but they can be a little. It's also fun to get really into the emotion of songs, since synesthesia likes to do that to ya. I dunno, we are all just used to it, and haven't really known any other version of seeing or hearing or whatever-ing reality.

[lajoswinkler]

There are various forms and subtypes, obviously, but the version I was describing would be a real disability both in nature and technological environment of modern world.

Errors that appear along the correct data would not because, as you've said, you're born with it and your brain adapts.