Synesthesia

In Class

Synesthesia is the combination of two or more senses of perception. One of the most common characteristics of synesthesia is the assigning of colors to numbers. For example, a person who has synesthesia will always see red color surrounding the number 5. In class, we did a synesthesia test. As Ms Jackson read out a series of numbers, we had to write down the color that we associate with the numbers. We did the test again after a week. I did not have synesthesia, because the colors that I wrote were different.

I think it would be interesting if someone had synesthesia. Does it affect the person's lifestyle? I think this depends on the symptoms of each individuals who has synesthesia. A few weeks ago, Mai Vi told me about a character in an American drama Lost who has synesthesia. The character can associate sounds with colors. Other than that, the character later also realized that certain colors are related to certain emotions. For example, if the character's mother was shouting, the sound of the mother shouting creates red sound wave. In some ways, this is an advantage for the character because the character is able to know the emotional state of people who are speaking. I personally would want to have that characteristic of synesthesia. It would help me to identify people's emotions and it would be a great help when I'm interacting with people. 

Source of image:

http://www.elchill.com/pictures/color_number_synesthesia.jpg