Learn about the neurological condition of Synesthesia in which the brain and mind perceive incorrect sensory and cognitive information. Study the history of synesthesia research and examples of synesthesia. Articles and videos illustrate various types and occurrences of synesthesia. Write your own Distorted Thought Record and explore the cognitive model of counseling. FIVESTARcourse.
Synesthesia or synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Many different phenomena have been included in the term synesthesia (based on the Greek words σύν and αἴσθησις meaning "union of the senses"), and in many cases the terminology seems to be inaccurate. A more accurate but less common term may be ideasthesia.
The earliest recorded case of synesthesia is attributed to the Oxford University academic and philosopher John Locke, who, in 1690, made a report about a blind man who said he experienced the color scarlet when he heard the sound of a trumpet (Ward, 2006). Researchers hope that the study of synesthesia will provide better understanding of consciousness and its neural correlates. Synesthesia is even sometimes used as a plot device or way of developing a character's inner life. Author and synesthete Pat Duffy (2006) is a source of information, describing four ways in which synesthetic characters have been used in modern fiction. While he couldn't see certain colors with his eyes, he could still "see" those colors when looking at certain letters. Because he didn't have a name for those colors, he called them "Martian colors," as it was said of neuroscientist and author V.S. Ramachandran.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is related to alteration in neuropsychological functioning, including visual and other cognitive processes (Hoffman et al, 2019). But is Synesthesia a mental illness? No, surprisingly! When synesthesia and savant abilities are mistaken for hallucinations and delusions, a cognitive approach provides for their differential diagnosis (Bouvet et al, 2017).
