What is the name given to the human condition whereby people see or hear things as coloured, such as names, letters, numbers, or sounds? One man with the condition famously said, "What a crumbly yellow voice you have."

wajo	Synesthesia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia Sep 26 06, 2:55 PM

gsquestions

Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense. In addition to being involuntary, this additional perception is regarded by the synesthete as real, often outside the body, instead of imagined in the mind's eye. It also has some other interesting features that clearly separate it from artistic fancy or purple prose. Its reality and vividness are what make synesthesia so interesting in its violation of conventional perception. Synesthesia is also fascinating because logically it should not be a product of the human brain, where the evolutionary trend has been for increasing separation of function anatomically. Sep 26 06, 2:58 PM

Arpeggionist

I don't think it's odd to attatch certain colors or shadings to particular sounds, say of a particular piece of music or a musical instrument. Stephen Fry remarked in one of his books on how Mozart's 29th symphony seemed incredibly "brown" to him. A clarinet's sound always brings to my mind a furple hue and the taste of a fine grilled cheese sandwitch. Sep 26 06, 3:34 PM

Flynn_17

Thanks, folks. It annoys me, someone I know seems to have the ability to tie words to a colour very well without ever being dubious. The letter patterns seems to make a lot of sense, and he never slips up. Annoying synesthesics. Sep 26 06, 4:04 PM

lanfranco

I've done this since childhood. To me, numbers have colors and personalities -- 5 is scarlet and dominant. while 6 is pale green and meek, and seven is bright-blue and avuncular -- although letters have personalities only. I tried to explain this to a teacher once, and she looked at me as though I were a candidate for the local psychiatric hospital. It was a great relief to me to encounter an article on "Synesthesia." Sep 26 06, 5:03 PM

Priscilla9

Wow, so there's nothing completely unusual about me! 9, my lucky number is more of a cyan. It is more conservative. 10, while it has no specific colour, is more of a leader of all the numbers, which would make sense if you think about it. Sep 26 06, 5:54 PM

IAmTheWalrus15

Also some autistic people may get this, in a heightened state of mind. Sep 26 06, 6:26 PM

Flynn_17

I always applied the names of the days of the week to colours. Monday is blue, Tuesday is yellow, Wednesday green, Thursday purple, and so on... but that might be a hark back to some wall chart we may have had at some point. Sep 27 06, 6:47 AM

itsannier

Goodness me I have been labelled my days of the week have colours too !!! Oct 11 06, 1:21 PM