AWCH Synaesthesia

It is Sabine's second day of school. The six-year old sits excitedly at her desk and looks foward to her first math lesson. She has always like numbers, particularly 3 and 8, which are her very favorite. "What is one plus one?" the teacher asks the class. Without blinking an eye, Sabine calls out, "Dark green!"

At first she could not understand why her classmates laughed at her. She realized for the first time that she was different than all the others. Obviously, the number "2" did not sound like dark green to everybody else.

Sabine was shy and unsure as she told her parents about her experience in school and was shocked when they wanted to send her to a psychiatrist immediately. "From that moment on I behaved as if there was nothing wrong", Sabine expained sadly.

Sabine Schneider is neither sick nor crazy. On the contrary, she has an extraordinary neurological ability that experts call Synaesthesia. The term synaesthesia comes from the ancient Greek words syn which means together and aisthesis which means impression. Those with this ability automatically combine the impressions of different senses with each other. Some, for example, see everything in colors and shapes that others can only hear and there are others who are also able to taste what non-synaesthesists can only feel. They experience parts of our world differently than the rest of us.

Recently, scientists have discovered that this bizarre peculiarity is more wide spread than assumed up until now. The newest estimates show that at least 1-2 people in 1000 are affected. Over 80% of all Synaesthesists are women. Hindrik Emrich of the Medical University in Hanover views this sceptically. "More than likely, this ratio not exact because of the fact that men rarely admit that they have unusual perceptions". Moreover, most research has been hampered by the fact that relatively few people have been able to be tested. Because synaesthesia seems to run in families, researchers suspect that the characteristics are inheirited through the "female" X-chromosome. Neuroscientific research shows what areas of the brain are activated by which stimulus by observing the blood flow to certain regions of the brain. In the process, it was shown that the brains of synaesthesists are wired differently than the brains of "normal people". When synaesthesists hear music or languages, not only is the acoustic center of the brain active, but at the same time the visual center is active, which normally only processes things that are seen. Although it has been known about for over 300 years, modern science has only recently devoted time and energy to the synaesthesia phenomena.

It is important to determine that synaesthestic episodes are not hallucinations. Synaesthesists experience these sensory perceptions are fully conscience of what is happening to them and these episodes take place without the influence of drugs. The American neurologist Richard Cytowic reports of LSD-influenced synaesthesia in people who don't normally have this ability. LSD is not the cause of general improved receptivity or a specific increase in the synaptic paths to the limbic system in the human brain.

In the meanwhile, Sabine Schneider has openly accepted her unusual ability and has even brought about a research project at the Psychological Institute at the Leipzig University that will examine the synaesthesia phenomena. Psychologists, neurologists, and neurobiologists are becoming increasingly fascinated by this seldom occuring ablility and through their observations hope to answer some basic questions in the field of perception research such as "What connections exist between the various sensory channels? And how is it possible to assemble a meaningful overall picture?" "Perhaps synaesthesists can help us answer all these questions", says Emrich.

In order to better understand the world of synaesthesists, Emrich and Schneider have now established what they call "conversation cafés". People with these perceptive abilities can meet and talk about their experiences.

Again and again researchers are surprised by the variety of combination possibilities. The most common type of synaesthesia, though, is "the hearing of colors". Everyday acoustic impressions like noises, words, numbers involuntarily appear as colors to the mind's eye. "For me, Bach's H-Moll-Messe has a blue shade, the instruments are ochre and the voices are light green", says the 28 year old Schnieder. "I experience Rachmaninov's second piano concert in a dark green cavern where squares move from the front to the back". Claudia Reck also sees things that others cannot perceive: "When I hear a telephone number, I immediately see it in different colors: the 3 is light blue, the 4 is yellowish-orange and the 7 is old rose. When I want to call someone, I dial the numbers according to the colors I see in my mind."

Yet, even stranger cases are recounted in the conversation cafés. To a young man from Berlin, mint candies taste like "cool glass columns" that he can touch with his stretched out hand. When he drinks lemon juice, he feels soft needle pricks all over his body.

In particular, Emrich researches those whom he calls Emotion synaesthestics. This term refers to those who don't always experience the same associations. For example, when they hear the note "high C", it may sometimes appear as blue and at other times red - depending on the person's emotional state. On the other hand, real synaesthesists always experience the same associations. He says, "In their brains they have a type of dictionary with couplings between colors and shapes and the meanings of things that can be seen and and heard."

When Sabine wants to remember an appointment she doesn't need a calender. The young woman from Leipzig remembers dates with the help of colors. Hours, days, weeks and years are sorted by colors. "I don't like to make appointments for 9 o'clock because that time of day is a horrible reddish-brown. I'd rather make it for 10 o'clock which has the color of a candle flame or for 8 o'clock which looks like the yellow of vanilla sauce", she explains and then adds, "If the color isn't pleasant, than the time is also not pleasant."

Synaesthesia is an involuntary phenomena that cannot be turned off or suppressed by those affected. More often than not, the sensory experience remains for an entire lifetime. "It is a troublesome side effect to everyday life, a permanent overstimulation that is a constant companion", says Schneider. "On the other hand, I can't imagine how I could have understood Latin without it. Every declination ending had a different color to me."

Professor Emrich has found that synaesthesists are more satisfied and less afraid than non-synaesthesists. They are also more in touch with their feelings. "We all have the foundation in our brains to be synaesthetically perceptive", Emerich says. He suspects that people that can experience "Sensory Fireworks" are at a higher developmental level. It is nice to know that a higher level of contentment is part of the bargain.