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Synaesthesia

May 14th, 2007

syn·aes·the·sia n.

  1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualisation of a color.
  2. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referred pain.
  3. The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.

I knew about this condition before reading an article in The Independent a week ago, but that prompted me to think about it a bit more.

It was this morning when I realised that synaesthesia as a concept isn’t all that strange. Sometimes I’m overcome with emotion when I listen to certain songs–and not even because they necessarily link to anything. As an entity in themselves they are enough to evoke emotion.

I’ve talked about this with other people and they feel the same way about various songs. Also it is common to link music with certain memories in your life. Even if you didn’t even like the song, you’ll find yourself smiling at it when it evokes a memory. I also get this strongly with smells. Michael Frayn even used smell-association to write a boring book called Spies.

Filed under: Words by Alex at 7:39 pm | Trackback

One Response to “Synaesthesia”

  1. Aranil Says:
    May 20th, 2007 at 7:26 pm

    smelling curry makes me want to go back to India…
    hearing the word “chip” makes me want to go to England…
    and the sun makes me want to go live in Australia…

    is this a problem? ^_~