Synesthesia is the broad category for a variety of involuntary associations that can develop between senses. When one stimulus is experienced in one sensory mode, it can trigger another type of sensation. This process appears to be automatic. Such associations generally remain stable over time. People with synesthesia, called synesthetes, vary significantly, since there sensations tend to be rather individualized. Synesthesia was first reported in 1812, but was more widely recognized in the late twentieth century. It has a genetic piece, as it runs in families. Synesthesia can be developmental, as there has been some research to suggest that there is an environmental component. It can also occur later in life, as the result of some form of …show more content…
Grapheme-color synesthetes, for example may experience color sensations when viewing letters, or graphemes. With chromaesthesia, people associate sound with color. Synesthetes with lexical-gustatory associations experience a taste when they hear or see a particular word. The sense of touch on another person can elicit the sensation of being touched with mirror-touch synesthesia. These are just a few examples, as over sixty forms have been identified. Researchers have completed fMRI studies to examine the brain regions of the visual association cortex, including V1, V2 or V4/V8. With “colored-hearing” synesthetes, the left V4/V8 regions were also activated by speech, in comparison to a control group who did not have such activation. From this information, the researchers found that “colored hearing” does exist and have gained more knowledge about the processes that work together to make additional imagery perceived. Another portion of the brain related to synesthesia is the mirror neuron system. This system is particularly linked to mirror-touch …show more content…
In general, synesthetes tend to have better memories. They also do well in tasks that contain information with high spatial frequency, including words and abstract concepts, which are found mostly in the dorsal path. As a result of the positive factors associated with synesthesia, research has been conducted to determine if some components can be taught to those who do not have synesthesia. Because it has an environmental component, it is worthwhile to examine what in the environment has an effect on the development of synesthetic connections. Another way to think about teaching synesthetic connections is to note that, by learning to read, we are making associations between graphemes and phonemes. Although we do not consider this task that is now used everyday to be synesthetic, the idea may help us to develop other ways to learn similar connections that may be just as useful or even more useful than reading is to us