1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. 2 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:09,880 Speaker 1: I'm Lauren voc Obam and today's episode is a classic 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:13,520 Speaker 1: from our erst file. Host Christian Sager. The topic what 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 1: is synaesthesia and how does it work? Hey brain Stuff, 5 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: it's Christian Sager. Have you ever heard a color or 6 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: smelled a sound? If so, don't worry. You are not alone. Instead, 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: you're part of a group I consider superpowered. You have 8 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:37,240 Speaker 1: synast asia, or you've done some crazy drugs, and maybe 9 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: that's a different episode. But when people with synastasia experience 10 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,519 Speaker 1: input from one sense, it results in the experience of 11 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:49,840 Speaker 1: another sense. So if you're a sinisty like author Vladimir Nabokov, 12 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: you would associate letters with colors, grapheme color synast asia, 13 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 1: that's what it's called. And there are different types of 14 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: synast asia. Nabakov called his color hearing this grapheme color 15 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,640 Speaker 1: stuff is the most common type, but cinnast asia can 16 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: occur between just about any combination of senses or cognitive pathways, 17 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: and not everyone will experience the same type of cynas 18 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:18,400 Speaker 1: asia the same way. So while the soft ah sound 19 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 1: always seems like fire engine red to one sinistete it 20 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: maybe cobalt blue for others. Some people with this condition 21 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 1: see music, which sounds kind of beautiful when you think 22 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,319 Speaker 1: about it. There are less common types, such as lexical 23 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: gustatory synas asia. People with this condition taste certain flavors, dishes, 24 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 1: or entire meals based on a picture, word, or sound. 25 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: Smells could have colors and shapes to the list goes on. 26 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: There's mirror touch, cinnast asia, ordinal linguistic personification, and number 27 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: form where a person sees numbers as a distinct map. 28 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 1: So this is all fascinating, but how do people get it? 29 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: Researchers are still working on that one, but they believe 30 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: the condition tends to be somewhat inherited or genetic, as 31 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 1: about of sinistats have a close relative with cynast asia. 32 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: Most sinnistates recall having the condition for as long as 33 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,639 Speaker 1: they can remember. It might sound like people have made 34 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:24,799 Speaker 1: pneumonic connections with sounds, colors, or so on, but research 35 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: shows it is a genuine sensory phenomenon rather than a 36 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: memory exercise. For example, if we drew the number five 37 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:37,600 Speaker 1: all over a piece of paper scattered with a few twos, 38 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,760 Speaker 1: forming a triangle. Most people would have a hard time 39 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: seeing it. They would have to look closely to search 40 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: for the twos and then slowly construct the shape, but 41 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:52,279 Speaker 1: a graphine color sinistete can see this triangle almost instantly. 42 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 1: Researchers think that cinnast asia is a kind of cross 43 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: wiring in the brain in graphine color cinis steats, seeing 44 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: a number stimulates your graphee region and the area of 45 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: your visual cortex that responds to color stimuli. One theory 46 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,359 Speaker 1: is that there are increased neural connections in the brain 47 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,920 Speaker 1: of cynistats that could have been the result of less 48 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: neural pruning. That's what they call it neural pruning, while 49 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:24,560 Speaker 1: in utero. Even cooler is that there might be actual 50 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: anatomical differences in the brains of cinistats, like increased white 51 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,360 Speaker 1: and gray matter in their brains. One bit of sad 52 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: news for all the non sinnistats out there. Although one 53 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: study did find that some exposure to color letters built 54 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: up their association, the effect didn't last, so people can't 55 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: just catch synaesthesia. But hey, it's not like all the 56 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,559 Speaker 1: cynist eats have a great time. It can be uncomfortable 57 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: to see a number in the wrong color, and one 58 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: lexical gustatory synist Eats said that if a certain name 59 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:02,120 Speaker 1: doesn't taste write to him, he has a hard time 60 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: liking the person it's attached to. And it's time to 61 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: talk about drugs. Don't act like you didn't know this 62 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: was coming. Hallucinogens might be one way that synaesthesia can 63 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: be manufactured. Several drugs can produce vivid cynist asia in 64 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,600 Speaker 1: non sinist eats, which might be a key to understanding 65 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,920 Speaker 1: the condition. One researcher has positive that in non sinistats, 66 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:32,280 Speaker 1: information in a multisensory area travels back easily to its 67 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,400 Speaker 1: single sense area, but in sinistats it gets a bit 68 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:41,720 Speaker 1: mixed up along the way. Hallucinogens may temporarily alter the 69 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: user's neurochemistry, confusing those existing connections. I mean, let's face it, 70 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: going to a concert might be pretty amazing for people 71 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:58,360 Speaker 1: with visually associated synesthesia. Today's episode was written by Ben 72 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: Bolan and produced by Tyler Klang. The brain Stuff is 73 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For 74 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other topics, visit our 75 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 1: home planet how stuff Works dot com and for more podcasts. 76 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: For my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 77 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.